Time and Tide
by Merlin Missy
Summary: What would you do to see someone just one last time? Crossover with Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Time and Tide (1/5)  
a Justice League Unlimited / Batman Beyond story  
by Merlin Missy  
Copyright 2006  
PG-13

DC and Warner Brothers own everything. With deepest thanks to my lovely betas Dotfic and Amilyn who punched this into shape, and also to BillA1 and Ladyknyght who served as sounding boards throughout the process.

Summary: How far would you go to see someone just one last time?

Notes: This is yet another story set in the wacky R 'Verse (see my profile), and while familiarity with that series is suggested, it's not required. Takes place somewhere between "To Another Shore" and "Flash and Substance" in JLU continuity.

Warnings: Character death

Pairings: Yes. Lots. However, this is primarily gen.

* * *

Sunlight, warm on his eyelids, woke him from a dream he immediately forgot. 

Groaning slightly, John rolled over to hide his face away from the sun just a little longer, sleep in just a little more. Any minute, Shayera would come into the room and fuss at him to get up, teasing him about sleeping away the rest of his life. He'd continue to groan, telling her he was old enough to sleep as long as he damn well pleased.

Then she'd bring some coffee in, and she'd threaten to dump it on his head. Fortunately for John, in the last thirty years she'd only done that once. Far more often, the coffee would end up going cold as he pulled her back into bed and they greeted the day properly.

Come to think of it, Shayera was overdue for their morning ritual. Possibly she'd gotten distracted by the newsreel, possibly she was on the phone --- they could call it whatever they wanted, but to John, it was always would be a telephone, no matter how much Shayera teased him --- getting caught up on the latest events back on Earth. Arthur was on summer vacation between third and fourth grades, and would call every day out of boredom if his parents hadn't put a quick stop to that. But John hadn't heard the familiar buzzing, and anyway, he didn't know what time it was in Metropolis. Also, he couldn't hear Shayera's voice elsewhere in the house.  
Stretching, John brushed against Shayera's wing, and a smile touched his lips.

And then there were the rare and lovely mornings she slept in even later than he did, and he could wake her up with kisses, nuzzling her neck until she woke laughing or scowling, whatever her mood.

He slipped his fingers over the feathers of her near wing, brushing against her face.

"Hey," he said quietly, stroking her soft cheek. Not even looking, he knew the pattern of fine wrinkles around her mouth and eyes like a map.

She didn't respond. He rolled over, slipping his hand down to her neck and tickling lightly. Still nothing. She was sleeping deeply this morning.

John frowned. Shayera never slept this soundly unless she'd been knocked out, and she hadn't been in a fight in years.

"Shayera?" Not a motion, even as he started to shake her. "Shayera!"

* * *

Arthur listened. He was very good at listening, at being quiet, at not being noticed. He practiced at it. He'd learned a long time ago that people with secrets, like his parents and the rest of the League, were more likely to relax and talk about grownup things when they'd forgotten he was in the room. 

If there was ever a competition for sitting still and paying close attention to conversations, the judges wouldn't even notice Arthur had shown up.

This is Arthur: an inch or two shorter than the average nine year old boy; skinny but with a large enough bone structure to suggest that adolescence would bring an easy hundred pounds of muscle; short blond hair with what the casual observer will wrongly assume are not green highlights; in his hands or near them, always a book; this was not to continue his own education per se, but to add to his unobtrusive eavesdropping.

Today his book of choice was on Greek mythology. Cassie had insisted. It was her book, and she'd written lots of notes in the margins saying things like: This is completely wrong, and She has much better taste than that. Arthur liked the notes, but he'd stopped reading an hour ago.

Nana was dead.

The thought grabbed and shook him like a dog with a rag in its mouth. It was summer, and he and Dad always spent a week in the summer visiting his grandparents on the second moon of Galtos, hiking and camping and staying up way late, and they were supposed to go next month and now Nana was dead and Dad was going alone, tonight.  
"We should go with you," said Mom.

"We should all go," said Superman. "I'll call Diana. She can be here in less than an hour. I'm sure Static will want to come, too."

"No," said Arthur's dad. He wasn't crying, and Arthur watched his face very carefully, trying to make his own face screw up that way. Arthur didn't want to cry either. Nine was too old to cry. "It's got to be just me and Dad."

"Are you returning her to Thanagar, then?" asked Barda.

Dad nodded. "And the fewer people we take, the less we look like an invading army. Especially with you guys," he added.

Superman returned his not-quite smile. "All right. You know to give John our best. If he needs anything ... "

"Yeah," said Dad.

"I want to go," Arthur said. Everyone looked at him, sitting in his corner with his closed book. Only Mom didn't seem surprised to see him there.

"We already decided," said Dad. "I want you there too," he said, when Arthur frowned. "But it's not safe. We're not sure what kind of reception we're going to get, and I gotta watch out for your granddad already."

"I can be good," Arthur said, getting to his feet as Dad came over.

"I know you can." Arthur was afraid Dad was going to get down on his knees, like he used to when Arthur was a little kid, but instead he just placed a strong hand on Arthur's shoulder. "I need to you take care of your Mom while I'm gone. Can you do that?"

Arthur didn't miss his mother's eyeroll; he was too old for that kind of talk, too. But he nodded because he knew he wasn't going to win, and he ducked out from under the hand to stand closer to his Mom.

His parents talked with Superman, who did call Aunt Diana just to let her know what had happened. Barda left the room to get a regular line to call Static, who'd retired last year.

Nana had had a lot of friends. Which was weird, because Dad had once told Arthur the story of why a lot of people didn't like her very much.

Mom and Dad went to grab some of the spare clothes Dad kept at the Tower, and Arthur went back to pretending to read. Cassie would be in later and she'd ask him what he'd learned and he wouldn't be able to tell her anything. He flipped to the story of how Poseidon made the first horse and left the book open to that page while he listened.

Aunt Diana wasn't crying. She wore that same pinched look Arthur remembered from Micron's mother's funeral, when she'd come in disguise with the rest of them.

"You're sure this time?" was all she asked Superman.

He told her back: "Lucky Seven, down to four." More quietly, he said, "I'll bet you Wayne Manor we're down to three come this time next year."

"Not a bet I want to make. How's he taking it?"

"Warhawk was the only one who talked to him. I think ... " Superman's voice went all weird, and Arthur made himself look at Cassie's loopy handwriting: Clearly lacking any understanding of evolutionary principles.

"I know what he's going through," said Superman.

"So do I," said Aunt Diana, and Arthur snuck a look to her face on the viewscreen, watched her wipe something from her eyes. "Have you contacted J'onn yet?"

"No. Warhawk's about to leave. I'll try to reach him after that."

"Tell him I said hello. If you talk to John, send him my love."

Superman nodded, and they said their good-byes as Arthur's parents came back to the Control Room. Dad had a small bag in one hand, and held Mom's hand with the other. Arthur figured they'd already said good-bye while Dad packed. This guess was reinforced when they dropped hands and Mom stepped away from him instead of kissing him. They weren't big on showing affection in the Tower, not in front of everybody else.

Barda opened a boom tube to Galtos for Dad. They'd take the small ship Poppa and Nana owned for the trip to Thanagar itself. Dad waved, did not embarrass Arthur by ruffling his hair, and he was gone.

Only when the tube faded from view did Arthur realize no one had said anything about how long it would be until he came back.

* * *

The boom tube deposited him in the barren, rocky expanse that passed for his parents' backyard. The weird wind effects died down, and Rex stood alone for a moment, dreading everything that was to come. 

Then he walked around to the front and knocked.  
Dad answered it a minute later. Rex tried not to stare, but in the hour since he'd received the call, his Dad seemed to have aged ten years. Dad stepped aside and let him come in.

"You can put your things in the guest room," was the first thing Dad said, his voice quiet and thick.

Rex dropped his bag to the floor and drew his father into a hug. Dad hugged him back, not crying, not shaking, just perfectly still except for his arms. Rex couldn't count the number of times his father had hugged or comforted him when Rex was a boy. Now he could be the rock in return.

They moved to the couch, where Rex pretended not to see as Dad wiped his eyes.

"What did the doctor say?" Rex asked at last.

Dad shrugged. "Doctors," he said dismissively.

"Dad."

"She didn't know. An aneurysm maybe, she said. Nobody outside of Thanagar knows much about Thanagarians. Your mom was fine. She wasn't sick." Dad rubbed the back of his own neck absently. "She just ... didn't wake up."

Rex nodded. His own genetics were a time bomb waiting to go off and always had been. Mom had never cared much about Thanagarian medicine other than what it took to set a bone. The only time she'd allowed herself to come under a doctor's care was when she'd been pregnant.

"Where's the funeral home?"

"Couple of light years away." Dad sighed. "There isn't an industry here. People die, they get buried the next day."

A weird horror filled him. "So she's ... "

Dad tilted his head towards his bedroom.

"I've already called for the transport to where they do ... " He took a gulp of air. "There's a place that does cremations. They'll be here in an hour." He took Rex's hand, patted it. "Go see her. Go talk to her."

And then, he really really didn't want to. He wanted to call up another tube and go back to Earth and go to his own house and run to his own bed and hide. Anything but go into what had been his folks' bedroom for over twenty years and see the thing on the bed that had once been his mother.

But Rex hadn't become a superhero from avoiding things he didn't want to do.  
He squeezed his father's hand, and walked the three hundred miles down the hallway. The door was ajar. He pushed it open, expecting a creak and not hearing one.

His mother lay on the bed above the covers, wearing a nice teal dress she'd always liked.

She'd been asleep. Which meant that after the doctor had left and before Rex had come, his father all alone had moved her and dressed her for transport to where someone who'd never met her would render her body to ash.

Rex stroked the hair from her face, smoothed down a few stray feathers from where she lay uncomfortably on her back.

He tried to think of something to say, anything. Thank her for everything she'd given him. Tell her how much he loved her.

All that would come out was, "Sorry."

* * *

Terry slid the Batwing in to a reasonably perfect landing in the Metro Tower's landing bay. He killed the engine, but before he opened the roof, he turned back to face his brightly-clad passenger. 

"What's the rule?"

"I know the rule."

"Humor me. What's the rule?"

An aggravated sigh. "'Don't touch anything.'"

"Don't forget." He flipped the switch and the roof slid open. He unbuckled himself, then reached back.

"I can get it," said Robin. And with a click, the second belt came free. Terry leapt out of the Batwing, then offered Robin a hand. He heard a soft giggle, and suddenly his arms were full of kid. He should have known.

"Please don't do that in front of the others. I have a reputation, you know." Since the landing bay was empty, he let himself tousle Robin's dark hair.

"Do I have to call you 'Batman' while we're here?" Robin was already looking around curiously, trying to see everything. This was the first time Terry had dared bring anyone to the Tower. He'd tried to keep his life and his League activities separate; it didn't always work out that way, but he'd made an effort.

"Let me see who's here today. If it's just the people we know, no."  
Robin toyed with the black domino mask Terry had insisted on, and asked, "When can I take this off?"

"When I know it's safe."

"Arthur doesn't wear a mask when he's here, does he?"

Terry didn't reply. Instead he took Robin's hand. "Through here." They walked down the corridor to Ops. As the door slid open, Robin gasped, just a little. Terry still remembered the first time he'd walked into this room, met these people. He'd been the newcomer, the stranger, and he'd maintained that distance when he could.

Green Lantern nodded at him from where he stood at the control panel. When Terry had first joined the League, Kai-Ro had been just eight years old. Robin's age. Now he was the leader of the team, as much as they had a leader. GL gave a special smile to Robin. "You didn't say you were bringing a guest."

"Aquawoman suggested it." He squeezed Robin's hand and then let go. "Is there anyone here we don't know?"

"Negative."

"Yes!" said Robin. "Now can I take it off?"

"Fine. But keep it in your pocket in case there's trouble."

"Okay." The domino mask was off in a flash and tucked away. "Where's Arthur?"

"In his quarters, I believe," said GL.

The door slid open, and Terry instinctively put himself in front of Robin, but it was only Cassandra. "Hello, Batman. Oh, hello there!" she said pleasantly to Robin.

Robin immediately went shy, ducking behind Terry even more. "Hi." Robin was always a little intimidated around Cassie, though.

"Come on, kiddo. I'll take you up to Arthur's room."

"Okay."

Cassie waved as they left. GL kept his smile. Terry tried not to grouse as he led Robin to the elevator. At least Flash wasn't on duty today like he'd feared. He didn't know Terry's secret identity, and as long as the guy kept cracking jokes and almost getting other people killed, he wasn't going to if Terry could help it.  
He was having second thoughts about this anyway. Merina and Warhawk had a house in Detroit. It'd be easy to go there in normal clothes and not have to worry about who saw what or made which connections. But Warhawk was off-world burying his mother, and Merina had Arthur at the Tower this week. Robin attended the same private school Arthur did, though they were in different grades and it was summer break. And somehow Merina had convinced Terry that a playdate made perfect sense.

"What's the rule?" he asked again as they approached Arthur's door. Once upon a time, this had been Merina's quarters, and Terry had asked her out because he'd been young and unsure of where things were going with Dana or with his entire life, and he'd been in her room and sometimes he remembered everything like it had been last week.

Robin looked up at him and squeezed his hand. "'Don't touch anything.' But I can play with Arthur's stuff, right?"

"That's up to him." He buzzed the door, and a moment later, it slid open.

Arthur sat on his bed, reading. Terry tried not to pay attention as Arthur wiped his eyes quickly, then said, "Hi, Batman. Hi, Robin."

Terry twitched.

"Be good," he told Robin. "If you guys need anything, I'll be in Ops."

"Okay," said both at the same time.

"Bye, Daddy," said Robin, and she went inside Arthur's room to play.

* * *

Arthur marked his place with a purple bookmark while Robin poked around his room looking at the toys he kept here. 

"What're you reading?" she asked while he put his book away.

"Egyptian mythology." Nana had left books the last time she'd visited, and it seemed right to read those while he waited for Dad to come home.

"Boring." She picked up one of his airplanes and started to zoom it back and forth.

"It's not that bad." Nana had made notes in this book just like Cassie did in hers, and sometimes he paused his reading to trace his fingers over the letters. Most of the comments seemed to be to herself in a private code, some in English, some in Thanagarian: Wrong era, per C. Arthur could speak a little Thanagarian but he didn't know how to read it yet. Nana promised to teach him when he was bigger.  
Everything hurt again, and he sat down.

"Mom's making me do a book report over the summer," said Robin, and she made whooshing noises with the plane. "Hey, do you have the Schway Sailors?"

"Not here. They're at home."

"Oh. You don't have a lot of toys here."

Arthur shrugged and looked around his room. "It's summer. I'm supposed to be home."

Robin put the plane down. "Sorry about your Grandma."

"Thanks."

"Is your Granddad gonna come live with you?"

"Maybe." Arthur tried to picture Poppa living in the house with them, and failed. "We've got a room."

"My Grandma has her own wing."

"That's 'cause you live in a mansion." Arthur had been to Robin's house lots. They weren't allowed to play in the Batcave or the kitchen, but the rest of the house and the grounds were more than enough for them to explore. "I don't think Poppa wants to come live with us."

They descended into silence. Robin picked up toys and looked at them and set them down almost in the same spots where she'd picked them up. Arthur resisted the urge to follow her and put them back exactly.

"Do you have any games?"

"There's games in the Rec Room. Bunch of old video games. And there's this really old fighting robots game that Superman likes to play."

"Mom says I'm not allowed to play with antiques."

"I play with it. It's fine." He hopped off his bed. It was stuffy in here anyway. "Let's go."

* * *

Merina changed on the way to the Metro Tower, ducking into one of several spots she used for the purpose. Off went the frumpy clothes she wore in her day job at the Metropolis Aquarium, on went her normal costume. People who'd ignored her on the first part of her commute now went out of their way to smile and wave. She found a smile back for each of them, trained by years of diplomatic work as much as affection. 

She swiped her ID at the Tower's main entrance and made her way to Ops. "Where are the kids?"

"Arthur's room," said Terry.

She debated going in to say hi to them, and decided against it. Arthur was on the cusp of a curious age, caught between the desire to spend time with his parents and the desire to spend time with his peers. Come another two years, he wouldn't anything to do with her at all, and she'd lose him for a decade at least. If she pushed now, that would happen even faster.

"How's the day been?" she asked Kai.

"Quiet. No major villain activity detected."

"Any ... other news?" She felt stupid for asking, stupider for feeling embarrassed about it.

Cassie was either the least embarrassed or didn't know she should be. "Warhawk hasn't checked in."

"Okay. Okay, thanks." She turned to one of the stations to look over the daily reports anyway. Terry was next to her, but was kind enough not to look at her.

He'd contact her when he could. They might be in orbit around Thanagar by now. Not a good time to call. Not when it was possible they'd get shot out of the sky, or executed on the ground for any one of a hundred reasons.

When she felt her nails prick her palms, she relaxed her hand.

"I'm going to go check on the kids."

The afternoon shift wasn't set to end for another hour, and she could pick up anything she needed to know then. And Arthur could just deal with his mother being in the room with him. Yes.

"I'll go with you," said Terry, and then he was beside her.

In the elevator, he rested against the wall. "I'm sure Warhawk is fine."

"Yeah," she said, not looking at him.

"Look, Merina ... "

"How's Dana?"

He let out a breath. "Tired. Work's been hard and Robin's running her ragged."  
"She needs her rest."

"I keep telling her that. But she knows she's going to be home for months after the baby comes, and she wants to get everything set before then."

Merina smiled sadly. She'd been acting Queen of Atlantis when she'd been pregnant, and rest had been something that had happened to other people.

The elevator stopped and they went to Arthur's room. It was, as she'd half-suspected, empty.

"Rec room?" asked Terry.

"Rec room."

A few minutes later, they found Arthur and Robin playing video games, with a purloined snack of potato chips and ginger ale between them. Merina scolded them for eating before dinner, then went blank as Terry asked what they were going to feed the kids.

Twenty minutes and a bit of swearing later, Terry managed to slightly burn a few pizzas. They called GL and Cassie down to the mess and had dinner together while the monitors kept silent watch over the world. Micron showed up for the evening shift, took one look at the pizza, and politely said he was full.

After, when GL had returned to his quarters and Cassie had gone out for the evening, to where she didn't say, Merina sat alone in Ops while Micron worked on the transceivers and Terry cleaned up the dinner dishes with help from the kids. This was her life and she was used to it and she loved it, loved this place and these people.

Merina listened to the world.

Staccato police bulletins fed through their system, notices from world governments that everything was fine or that things needed monitoring or that their neighbors were grumbling again. Nothing out of the ordinary.

When she felt the first tears prick her eyes, she wiped them away with the back of her hand.

The door whooshed open and she sat up straight as Terry walked in, smelling faintly of dish soap. His expressions were always so hard to read when he wore the mask, even though she was accustomed to looking for them.

"Why don't you go for a swim? Clear your head."

"I will later, I think. After Arthur goes to bed."

They watched the world together. Merina hated to admit it, but she felt better around him, just a little. She had performed a ritual farewell to Shayera's spirit and then placed her grief aside, knowing she would deal with it properly when Rex returned, but her fears gnawed at her relentlessly.

Batman chased away fear.

She knew on a few levels that she'd asked him to take this shift with her as much to have him nearby as to have the playdate for the kids. She told herself that wasn't as much of a problem as it could be.

Micron came back to Ops and just to tease Terry, she started conversing with him in French. Micron had taught her the language back when she'd first come ashore; she'd been so fascinated about everything in the air and sunlight, and she drank the cultures and languages like wine. Micron had even taken her, Rex, and Kai-Ro on a tour of Paris one bright weekend when she'd been seventeen. Kai had been brand new to the League and Rex still a part-timer because he was finishing high school. He'd been so awkward back then and she'd teased him awfully, which had embarrassed him and made it worse.

Her voice died in her throat.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

"Il n'est rien," she managed. She turned to Terry, who'd been sitting at his station growing irritated. "Will you bring Robin by tomorrow? To play with Arthur?"

"Sure." He closed his screen. "She needs to get to bed. I'm going to take her home now if you two have things covered here."

"Good night," Micron said.

Merina watched Batman go, and said nothing more until the Batwing had cleared the landing bay and was on its way back to Gotham.

* * *

"Animal Girl is a stupid name." Arthur glared at Robin. 

They'd spent the morning swimming in the tank. She needed breathing gear to play under the surface for any real time, but the grownups had said no, so they'd only filled it part-way and splashed until Arthur got bored. He wasn't allowed to play with the training settings, but he was used to swimming the obstacle course, staying under for hours. Now they were playing Supers.

"It's not any stupider than Duckboy."

"Waterbird!"  
"Whatever. I like animals." She glared right back. She'd brought her mask and put it back on to play, but it was tilted on her face and looked weird.

"But you don't have any animal powers. You don't have any powers."

"I'm pretending I do. I'm pretending animals can hear me when I talk to them." Robin had brought her favorite stuffed toy dog, and petted it. "Anyway, it's better than your powers. My daddy says you make toilets explode and talk to fish."

"I haven't exploded a toilet in two years." Arthur kicked the floor. He was getting lots better with his powers, really. Mom made him practice, and said she was going to let him come to work with her a little bit this summer so he could talk to the animals at the Aquarium.

"Animal Girl," Robin said again, and Arthur sighed loudly.

"Fine. But I get the good lasers."

"Fine."

All the kids at their school played Supers sometimes, except the kids who were too cool to admit they liked the JLU. Arthur usually didn't play much because Mom and Dad had drilled it into his head that the first word of secret identity was "secret." But he'd always played in his head, pretending he was going out on League missions with them. Sometimes when he sat quietly in Ops pretending to read, he imagined himself in battles, saving people, saving the world. He hadn't told his parents, but he'd already decided his League name was going to be Waterbird.

"All right, Animal Girl," he said, making his voice deeper. "There's trouble in Central City."

"Inque's robbing a bank," said Robin.

"Inque's a Gotham crook."

"So?"

"Gotham crooks are small-time."

"They are not. Gotham crooks are mean. Anyway, I work out of Gotham," she said with pride.

"Fine. But she's gotta have someone with her. Parasite?"

"Vandal Savage."

Arthur grinned. "Okay, Inque and Vandal Savage are in Central City. Flash just called for help."

"We're on our way."

* * *

Rex piloted the ship back towards Galtos. He'd been flying — ships anyway — since he was eleven. This was a milk run, and he flirted with just letting the autopilot take them the rest of the way. Dad was lying down in the back, and Rex could flick the "Auto" switch and go talk with him. 

He kept flying.

Rex had had barely an hour between first seeing his mother's body and waiting outside as it was rendered to ash. Her wishes. If they couldn't make it down to Thanagar itself for any reason, she wanted her ashes spread in space to orbit the planet.

The Thanagarian authorities, or to be more precise the Gordanian authorities, had no objections, and so the two of them had interred her with the remains of her ancestors. Rex's ancestors, too, although for all the Thanagarian he spoke, their names were strangers to him. A bare thimbleful of ash remained on Galtos in a glass vial and would be mingled with his Dad's when the time came; there was a nice spot in the garden outside the Metro Tower Dad had already picked.

The grief hadn't set in.

He expected it to hit any time. Rex had thought he'd break down and just let go, maybe during the walk to the mausoleum, maybe as he stood back and let Dad whisper to the small box as his shaking hands set it into place. So far, nothing. Not yet. Only a vague sadness, and the nibble of guilt that he was a touch relieved that it had been his mother to go first and not his father.

He flipped the "Auto" switch suddenly, violently.

In the back, Dad lay with his arms under his head, staring up at the ceiling.

"Thought you were sleeping," Rex said.

"Thought I was going to."

Rex sat down in the seat opposite. "We'll arrive in about twelve hours. Got a deck of cards in here someplace?"

"Used to. Check in the storage cabinet."

Rex got up and went to look. He'd been kidding about the cards, but he'd take what he could get to pass the time. The storage cabinet held rations, rope, a spare radio, a few bottles of water, fire-making tools, and sure enough, a battered, standard 52 card deck. He pulled them out of the box and started shuffling.

"What do you want to play?"  
"I don't," said Dad.

Rex kind of nodded, and just continued shuffling. It was something to do with his hands.

"I think you should come back to Earth."

"I'll come visit after I wrap up things."

"I don't mean to visit. Come back home. Come live with us." Rex didn't look at him, instead focusing on the cards flickering back and forth in his fingers. "We fixed up the guest room since the last time you visited."

"I have my own house."

"It's light years away." Rex sighed. "Mom's gone. You don't have to live off-world anymore."

"We're done talking about this." Dad rolled over on his side away from Rex.

"You have to travel through a boom tube or hyperspace to visit your doctor. You only get to see your grandson twice a year. And you're the only human within five light years of your home address."

"I've spent half my life in space."

"And you spent the other half living within a ten block radius of my house."

"Your house. Not mine."

"It could be yours, too. You can help Merina decorate." They'd bought the place five years ago, but with their schedules, they had yet to put up so much as a single picture, except the things Arthur drew for the fridge. "And if you were there, Arthur could stay with you instead of spending so much time at the Watchtower."

Dad didn't turn his head as he said, "Because we all know how kids turn out when they spend too much time at the Watchtower."

"Just think about it?"

"I did my thinking. Not gonna happen."

"Any other reason than because you're stubborn and old?"

Dad didn't respond. Rex had expected the usual comeback since he made that jibe pretty often. Maybe it reminded Dad too much of Mom. Mom had always said she was just stubborn, and that Dad was the old one.  
Not for the first time, Rex wondered how old she really was. The time change between Earth and Thanagar was a little weird to begin with, Mom had told him enough stories to make him think she was older than she looked even when she'd looked young, and then there was a thirty-odd year time jump to factor into the mess. Mom had never said how old she was and she refused to celebrate a birthday. Now he'd never know for sure.

"I'll make a deal with you," Dad said eventually. "You and Merina get married, and I'll come live there with you."

Rex stood up. "I gotta go check the autopilot." His father didn't make any kind of acknowledgment as he went.

Back up front, the ship cruised along fine on its own, just as he'd known it would. He didn't feel like staying and arguing about things neither of them could change. Dad knew what the deal was, knew enough about Atlantean politics to understand why Merina couldn't divorce Arthur's father.

Rex didn't doubt for a moment that Dad loved Merina and Arthur like family. Anyone who asked, and even people who didn't, got an earful about the latest accomplishments of his grandson. He'd never been less than kind to Merina, and never wasted a chance to tell her stories about her own father, which she in turn never tired of hearing. Dad didn't approve of their arrangement, but he understood it. He'd also made it clear, though not when either Merina or Arthur was anywhere within earshot, that should Arthur's father meet with some kind of unfortunate accident ("God forbid, and don't get any ideas!") he expected to hear that the two of them had cornered a justice of the peace the next day.

Considering how long it had taken Dad and Mom to get married after Rex's own birth, Rex had made it clear right back that "Do as I say and not as I do" hadn't worked on him since he was younger than Arthur. To which Dad had his own reply, but at that point they tended to drop the subject because Mom would interrupt with something.

Mom wouldn't be interrupting ever again.

It was probably for the best that they weren't living under one roof after all.

* * *

Waterbird and Animal Girl split up in level two, Animal Girl in search of provisions (she liked cheese crackers, Arthur wanted more chips) and Waterbird in search of something cool to add to their pretend weaponry besides his Super Samurai light up pistolasers. 

The Trophy Room was locked. Arthur paused at the door. He was allowed in here, but he'd never been alone, and there was a passcode to unlock the door. Dad had brought him in plenty of times, and the code never changed, and Arthur always watched when he did it, but that didn't mean he was supposed to.  
He typed in the code and went inside. He was on an adventure, and anyway, he wasn't going to touch anything.

The more dangerous weapons were locked up tight so most items were there for display only. Dad brought him here to show him the Thanagarian weapons confiscated during the invasion. The collection was smaller than it had been; Dad had taken many of the duplicate weapons and used the Nth metal in some experimental alloys, for shielding and for new weaponry. There was even Nth metal in the construction of Dad's armor, but only a few people knew that.

Arthur wondered if they would put Nana's mace here in the trophy room, if Dad was going to bring it back with him, or if Poppa was keeping it.

He read the little cards by each piece: Metal scrap from Annihilator, Chronos Belt, Brainiac remains – inactive. So much stuff, all of it fascinating. He forgot about the game and instead imagined what each thing was used for. Some bad guy's toy, or some hero's last-ditch chance at a rescue?

He was Waterbird, leader of the JLU, and the only way to save the rest of the team was to use ... He looked over to the nearest trophy. Circe's girdle! Of course! He reminded himself to look up "girdle" later.

"Take that, Vandal Savage!" Imaginary Vandal Savage clutched his chest and fell to the ground, defeated.

"You missed," said Robin from the doorway.

"Sh!" he told her.

"You're the one yelling." She set down the snacks. "I though were weren't supposed to be in here."

"I'm allowed," he said. It was only kind of a lie.

"What's this?" Robin poked at a belt. It started to light up, and they both stepped back.

"Don't touch things!"

"I was just looking!"

A weird shimmery glow filled the space where they'd been standing, and then images appeared in front of them. An empty corridor, daylit.

"It's a TV," said Robin.

"It can't be a TV. It's a belt."

"But it's like one of the monitors. See? There are people walking. Do you think it's a security camera or something?"

"Weird place to keep one," said Arthur, getting a little closer to see. There were indeed two figures walking towards the screen, whatever it was.

Robin frowned. "Isn't that a Thanagarian?" she whispered, as though they might hear her.

Arthur's stomach did a flip. He's seen lots of old pictures and newsreels. Mom had taken out the photo album last night and shown him, and he recognized everything about her, even her costume. "That's Nana. And I think the other guy," they walked closer and he was certain, "that's my grandfather."

"He doesn't look like your granddad."

"My other grandfather. The one I'm named after." Mom had shown him pictures of her father: the long golden hair, the fierce hook, the irritated expression.

"Are they fighting?"

"No, I think they both always just looked that way."

Robin peeked back over at the belt. "What is this thing, anyway? A recorder?"

"I guess." He watched them walk, talking about something he couldn't hear. Just like two normal people. But his grandfather had been dead since Mom had been a little girl, and Nana was gone forever.

The alert klaxon bellowed, and the last thought he had that it might be a window to somewhere else was dashed when the two figures in the belt didn't notice at all.

"C'mon," said Robin, slapping the button on the belt again. The images winked out of sight.

Arthur let Robin grab his hand and lead him out of the room. They ran to Ops, where GL was already pulling up the images of an attack by Shriek and his flunkies in central Gotham. Batman called in to say he could handle it alone, a claim immediately made false by the Batwing blowing up. Arthur was pretty sure Batman had ejected first. Robin's hand twitched in his, and he gave her a little squeeze. Her mouth went all tight and unhappy until Batman radioed to say he was all right.

"I'm already on my way," said Mom over the speakers. She'd been out near Gotham on an earlier mission anyway.

"We're going as backup," Lantern announced. Then he frowned. "Aquawoman, please return to the Tower at once. Someone has to watch the children."

"We can stay by ourselves," Arthur said.  
"I doubt that," said Lantern.

Arthur screwed up his face in his best glare. "We're both older than you were when you joined the League."

"Just let them," said Flash impatiently. "They'll be good. Right, Artie?"

Lantern sighed, but Arthur knew there wasn't time. "Fine. Stay in your quarters and don't touch anything."

"Let's go," said Barda, and the three were off.

* * *

They always kept the ship docked at the local landing port when it wasn't in use. 

Dad told the three-headed harbor master on duty that he'd brought the ship back, waited as the rental agreement was checked and rechecked, and was given the go-ahead to leave. They caught a transport back to the major crossroads nearest the house and walked the rest of the way.

Considering everything, and Rex still wasn't ready to consider everything, Dad was in a decent mood. Discharging his duty to Rex's mother had given him a small measure of peace, but Rex wasn't fooled. Come another few days, the house would be echoing and empty and Rex would be back on Earth and Mom would be gone for good, and Dad wouldn't be able to handle it, not this time.

Maybe Dad recognized that, too. The house came into view, and he stopped. Rex paused beside him. "You know," he said, "we could take a break, rest our feet. Wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Just for a minute," his father said, and there were some rocks large enough to act like decent seats. It was getting on towards evening, and Rex watched his own tall shadow stretch out beside and past his father. "Your mom wasn't one much for sunsets."

"No."

"I've seen them on plenty of planets. Kalinor had some great sunsets. Oa's are never as pretty as I think they ought to be." Dad laughed a little. "Saw one on Mogo once. That was ... " He stopped.

"I can help you get the house packed up," Rex said. "I know it'll take a while, but we don't have a lot of stuff in our place yet and I think what you've got will fit in fine."

Truth be told, it wouldn't but then, the stuff they had didn't really fit either. Merina's possessions were and always had been the colors of the sea: greens and blues and almost blacks and corals and bone whites. Rex's things were simple, cheap browns, thin leathers and battered, chipped woods. Hers spoke of a life alien to the surface world, his of an existence disguising half his nature. Their life together had always been about blending worlds that barely touched. Arthur was their great experiment, just as Rex secretly believed he himself had been his parents' experiment. It was at least better than admitting he was their accident.

"Go home, Rex," said his dad without looking at him.

"Come with me."

"Stop asking."

He closed his eyes. He wasn't going to win this one. "All right. If you're ready, we should get back to your place before dark."

"Yeah," said Dad, who stood up. "You'll want to set up the boom tube while there's a little light still out." And without looking back at Rex, he started to walk back towards his home.

* * *

Staying in Arthur's room lasted about an hour. Not that Arthur didn't have okay toys, but Robin was bored again. They couldn't play Supers in his room, and she didn't want to play anymore anyway. 

"We could go to the Rec room again," she said, fiddling with the arms on one of his action figures.

"We're supposed to stay here."

"We won't be doing anything bad. Anyway, I thought you were allowed everywhere."

Arthur scowled at her. "If we're not good when we're here alone, they'll never let me be here alone again. You don't care because you don't live here."

"You shouldn't live here, either. Nobody else's kids do."

"Dad did when he was little. GL was a kid when he started in the League."

"Your dad had to because your grandma has wings." She saw the hurt look on Arthur's face and felt bad. "Sorry."

"It's okay," he said. He hadn't talked about her. Daddy had told her that Arthur was going to be sad for a while and would probably want to talk about his Nana, because sometimes that made it better. But he hadn't said anything, though Robin had seen him rubbing his eyes like he was trying not to cry.

"Hey," said Robin. "You wanna go look at her and your granddad again?"

Arthur bit his lip. "Okay. But just for a minute."

The trophy room was as dark as they'd left it. They went over to the display where the belt was, and Robin looked at it, trying to remember how she'd turned it on before. She thought she'd poked it right here.

There was a click and then the same shimmery light filled the room. Like they'd paused a movie, the two people they'd seen before were right where they'd left them, most of the way down the corridor towards where they watched. Arthur leaned in, and a kind of wild glee was on his face, as their voices came through like from a distant speaker.

" ... growing like seaweed. He already swims almost as well as Mera."

"You've got to bring him by the Metro Tower sometime. I haven't seen him since he was a baby.

"I think they're talking about Uncle Triton," whispered Arthur.

They said something else that Robin couldn't hear. "What'd he say?"

"Sh!" said Arthur, leaning in even closer. They were almost even with the eye of the shimmer now.

"Let me listen too," Robin said, and she swore later that she didn't push.

* * *

Rex dialed Earth on the mother box. The tube appeared, huge and looming. He took one last look back at the house, but Dad had gone in already. Then he sighed and stepped inside.

* * *

"Behind me!" shouted Kai-Ro, as he raised a glowing shield over Batman's unconscious body. Aquawoman and Flash made it under the shield. Barda was too far away, but ducked behind a wall as the sonic blast hit. Kai suspected her ears would be ringing for hours later nonetheless. 

Keeping the shield steady, and wrapping it beneath them as the street beneath them began to crumble, he formed another arm from the bubble and aimed it for Shriek's machine.

Then the world shimmered around them.

"What was that?" asked Aquawoman.

* * *

Arthur fell forward, grabbing onto anything he could to keep from falling, but the anything was Robin and they both hit the floor hard. 

"Ow!" said Robin, as Arthur rubbed his knees. Something was wrong. It had been dark in the room, but now sunlight slanted in on his face. They were out in one of the corridors, level one probably.  
"How did you get in here?" demanded a voice behind them. Robin's face went pale as Arthur turned to see his grandfather and Nana both there, both instantly at battle-alert, both far too young to be believed.

Arthur looked at Robin. "We are in so much trouble."

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

Chapter Two

* * *

Shayera had had a good day so far. She wasn't on duty until later, but she'd been around the Tower to help out with that mess in England this morning. Nothing started her day quite like smacking a couple of mystically-summoned dragons over the head.

Aquaman had just come off shift when she arrived back in Metropolis, so they'd spent a nice time chatting over lunch. He'd challenged her to a round of chess in the Rec room, a hint of smile under his beard as he did. They'd been on their way from the canteen to the recreation area.

And now ...

"Who are you?" she demanded, mace in front of her.

The two kids backed away from her slowly, arms up.

"Put that down," Aquaman said to her irritably. "They're children."

"Prove they're not midgets or shapechangers and I'll believe you."

But she didn't think they were a threat, not really. They'd just startled her, and she hated being surprised like that. She touched her ear. "Intruder alert, corridor five, level one. Threat level," she sighed, "minimal. Aquaman and I have it under control, but be advised."

"Acknowledged," said Mister Terrific in her ear. "What's the nature of the intrusion?"

"Couple of kids got into the Tower. We're finding out how."

"Understood. Keep me posted."

Aquaman bent down. "How did you get in here?" he asked them again, but more calmly this time. "Are you lost?"  
"Are you Aquaman?" asked the little boy. Blond hair, large blue eyes, he looked frightened but not necessarily of them.

"That's right. What's your name?"

The kid looked even more scared, and glanced over at his friend. Her eyes were as wide and scared as his.

"We can't tell you that," said the boy. "And if you're Aquaman, we are way lost."

"We have to talk to Batman," said the girl.

"What?" The boy's complete attention was on the girl now.

"Basic rule of You Know What. When in doubt, talk to Batman."

"He's not our ... He's not who you think he is!" said the little boy.

The girl crossed his arms. "I know who he is."

Shayera sighed and clipped her mace back on her belt. If they weren't real children, they were doing a great job of pretending.

She frowned again. "Wait, you mean you know his secret identity?"

The girl nodded.

Shayera looked at Aquaman, but his face remained closed. He didn't know Bruce's name, as far as Shayera was aware.

Shayera bent down beside the kids uncomfortably. She hadn't been a child in a long, long time, and Thanagarian children spent most of their small, pre-warrior years in rookeries away from the adults. She wasn't quite sure what to do with these short people.

"Whisper it in my ear, then." The girl backed away.

"Uh uh. No giving away secret identities."

"I already know Batman's secret identity." Bruce had been none too pleased to find that out, but since he and everyone else had already been ready to kill her at that point anyway, the subject had never really been addressed later.

"How do I know you're not lying?" asked the girl.

The boy let out a disgusted noise. "R --- Animal Girl, stop being dumb, okay?" Animal Girl? "You know who she is," he whispered. He gave Shayera a little smile.

The girl whispered back, loudly, "What if she's evil?"

"I'm not evil."

"She's not evil!" said the boy. "Just tell her."

"Fine." She leaned over to Shayera's ear, and whispered, "Your Batman is named Bruce Wayne." Then she stood back, an uncertain expression on her face.

Shayera nodded. "That's him. I don't know how you know." She looked at the boy again, more closely this time, but she'd seen plenty of photographs of both Bruce's young wards. He wasn't Robin.

"Can we talk to him?" asked the boy.

Aquaman stood up and touched his ear. "Aquaman to Batman." As he spoke to Batman, Shayera continued to look at the children.

"Animal Girl, hm?"

"I like it," said Animal Girl.

"And what's your name?"

"His name's Duckboy," the girl provided helpfully.

"It is not! It's ... " He stopped.

"Rule two. No real names," said the girl.

"Batman is occupied," Arthur said. "He will be here in a few hours."

"We'll have to detain these two until he arrives."

"Can you stay with us?" Not-Duckboy asked quickly. "Both of you? Please?" Another little smile.

"I'm not really the babysitting type," Shayera said, looking to Aquaman for rescue. He had a kid and was far more likely to know what to do with them. Of course, now that she thought about it, he spent a lot of his free time hanging out at Kent and Inza's place rather than at home with Mera and his son.

"Please?" asked the boy again.

"I should be getting back to Atlantis," Arthur said. The boy looked heartbroken. "But I suppose I could wait a short time."

"Where are we going to put them? They shouldn't have the run of the Tower."

"Conference room."

"All right. You two, this way." She walked in front, heading for the small conference room on this level. To her surprise, the boy took her hand. Shayera almost pulled away, and then didn't. The kid seemed to like her. Most kids still shied away from her, or their parents grabbed them protectively. This pair was frightened, but they weren't scared of her. It was different. Not necessarily better, but different.

"Hey," said Not-Duckboy. "Do you have a chessboard?"

"You are such a dork," said Animal Girl from behind them.

"You're the one who wants to see Batman."

"I'll get the board from the Rec room," said Aquaman as they reached the conference room, and he left Shayera alone with the two children.

Well, it had started out a good day.

* * *

The world shimmered around them.

"What was that?" asked Merina. The street beneath them had cracked and crumbled, but the bubble held.

"Undetermined," said Lantern. His extended green arm grabbed Shriek's machine, crushing it easily.

Shriek ran.

The blasts outside ended, and the shaking buildings trembled and stilled. Lantern set them down on a piece of street that was undamaged. As Merina helped Batman to his feet, she saw Barda limp out from behind the corner where she'd stood, neatly whacking Shriek in the back of the head with her staff.

"Was he the last of them?" she asked.

"I think so," said Batman, rubbing his head.

Lantern scanned the area with his ring. Merina thought she could feel the emerald beam as it passed indifferently through her, but she'd closed her eyes before when he'd scanned, and she knew that to be her imagination.

Lantern said, "I am not picking up anything to indicate the nature of the occurrence."

"What occurrence?" asked Barda, dragging Shriek over to the pile of unconscious criminals Flash was already binding.

"That shimmer," Merina said. "Everything went strange."

"I didn't see anything," said Barda.

Merina glanced at Lantern and Flash, both of whom nodded. They'd seen it. Terry was still too groggy and probably hadn't noticed.

"It was probably something to do with their weapons," said Flash.

Lantern didn't look convinced. "I want full scans on everyone when we return to the Tower. Just to be sure."

"Whatever," said Batman. He finally shook his head clear. "Hey, if you're all here, who's watching the kids?"

* * *

The boom tube opened in the landing bay of the Metro Tower. Rex stepped out, then tried to stifle his disappointment that no one was there to greet him.

He dropped his things in his quarters and went to Ops. No one was there either, which was very strange. The monitors were set to Gotham, and he could see the remnants of what looked like a bad fight but while civilians walked in and out of the picture, he didn't see anyone he knew. He hit the communicator.

"Warhawk to Aquawoman."

Only a moment passed before she answered: "You're a sound for sore ears." He felt the smile spread over his face.

"Where is everyone?"

"We're finishing up in Gotham and heading back. Can you check on Arthur and Robin? They're supposed to stay in his room, so check the Rec room and canteen first."

"I will. Missed you."

"I missed you too."  
Batman cut in: "We'll be back shortly. End transmission."

Rex glared at the console.

* * *

Merina glared at Batman. "What was that all about?"

"You said the names of civilians on an open channel."

"It's our frequency. It'll be fine." She didn't like admitting he was right, that she'd allowed her relief to overwhelm her common sense. Rex was home and safe.

* * *

Rex went back to his quarters first. Arthur's room was next door, and per prediction, empty. He'd have to yell at Arthur later, but for now he allowed himself a grin. When he'd been a kid, he'd made an art of sneaking out of his room to explore both Watchtowers.

He suited up, enjoying the familiar comfort as the mask went over his features. Mom hadn't introduced him to many Thanagarian cultural traditions, but the mask felt right in ways he couldn't explain.

The kids weren't in the Rec room or in the canteen. In Ops, he activated the locator, scanning for the small communicator they'd given Arthur two years ago.

The computer went quiet far longer than made him happy, and the voice on the speaker made him even less happy: "JLU ID 'AJS' not located."

"Activate satellite and widen search."

"JLU ID 'AJS' not located."

Maybe his communicator had been damaged. That had happened once when salt water had seeped in through a bad seal. Rex turned on the monitors to the tank, to every level. Nothing. No Arthur, no little Bat.

The monitor to the trophy room showed something weird. A bad feeling in his gut sent him running for it.

The door to the trophy room was open. In one corner of the room, a weird light shimmered. He approached it cautiously.

Inside the light, he could just make out a corridor, the design from the old Metro Tower. As he peered in, maintaining a careful distance, he saw a teenager walk by at the far end. The kid was wearing Gear's outfit.

"Oh no ... "

* * *

Superman had arrived first, which wasn't a surprise, and brought Cassandra with him, which was. Micron called to say he'd be there shortly after he dealt with a small crisis in Paris. Gear was vacationing with the grandkids on Mars colony but offered to listen in via comm. Superman called J'onn and Queen Diana. Merina had called Arrowette and Enigma. Full League call. It had been an age, more.

"We've had a time incident," Lantern explained to each questioning face.

Rex made a fist but with an effort didn't punch the control panel. "He's not answering," he said, when Merina looked at him curiously.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"He is. He's just not speaking to me."

She held in her sigh. "Try again in a little while." John couldn't do anything right now but worry with them. The fear bubbled inside her again and she pushed it back. Fear would do her no good, would make her panic.

If she panicked, Arthur could die.

Superman said to Lantern, "You said you were inside the bubble?"

"Correct."

"The same thing happened to us years ago, when Vandal Savage tried to rewrite World War Two. John had us in a bubble, everyone but Batman. We were the only ones who noticed the changes to the timeline."

"This appears to be a similar phenomenon," said Lantern. He'd brought the Chronos belt into Ops with his ring and had been examining it. "I'll know more when Static arrives. He has been studying temporal mechanics for several years, and I believe he has examined this device."

Superman asked Rex, "Did your dad ever tell you anything about it?"

Rex shook his head. "I don't even know how he knew about it. He just said to go to Clinton's house and take it. Wouldn't say anything else."  
"Drat," said Superman; he never was good at swearing properly. "Try contacting him again. He's racked up more time-travel trips than anyone else on the team."

"I'm done," said Flash.

"Report," said Lantern.

"Well, if I remember history class, nothing much has changed. Same people won the same wars. No major shifts of anything."

"That's a relief," said Cassandra brightly. "The kids didn't affect anything major."

Merina caught Batman's glance. Or they died. The panic started to rise again. Rex touched her shoulder and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

Barda made a noise. "I can't find a reference to anything in the back League files. I can't imagine two kids just appeared and no one noticed."

"You don't remember anything?" Batman asked her.

"No," she said, and Superman shook his head. Queen Diana had said she'd thought something sounded familiar, but she couldn't say why.

"If my analysis of the settings is correct," said Lantern, "we may narrow down the time frame. It seems to be set for late 2005 or early 2006."

Barda went back to work on the records as the rest of the stragglers trickled in and had to be caught up on events.

"This is stupid," Rex said to her quietly. "We have the belt, we have the settings. Let's just go and get them."

"We will. As soon as we're positive, we'll go."

"Not 'we,'" said Lantern, still looking at the belt. "None of the legacy members should go or else you risk wiping out your own existence. But yes, we will go. I will take a small team and extract the children. Wonder Woman, Flash, you're with me."

Cassandra said, "I can't," just as the door slid open again and Static said, "They're really not."

"Why not?" asked Flash, looking a little disappointed. Bart had only joined officially a few years ago and had yet to be assigned anything "really meaty" as he put it.

"Because you didn't. I'm assigning this team, GL," Static said.  
"You came out of retirement just to pick team members?" Barda said, a teasing smile on his face.

"You could say that. I've been waiting for this particular team since I was sixteen."

Hope bloomed inside Merina. "You were there? What happened to the kids?"

Static looked at her. "I was there, yeah. And a lot hinges on my not telling you much. You're gonna have to trust me."

"Why don't I remember anything?" Superman asked. "Or Diana or Barda? We were outside the bubble. Our memories should reflect the new timeline."

"You weren't there," said Static. "I was, John was, Batman was. A few others, but those two classified everything and buried the records."

"That would explain this," said Barda from her console. "All the League records on that day were deleted, priority codes 001 and 005 confirming."

Static nodded. "They wouldn't risk contaminating the timeline further. I've been working on these," he said, tossing a small device to Rex. "Personal time travel device. Enough juice to carry two people each there and back, with preset arrival and departure settings to make sure no one screws up and accidentally meets up with the Legion again."

A shadow passed over Superman's eyes. Had Merina not been looking his way at the moment, she'd have missed it entirely.

"You've been busy in your retirement," said Rex, still intent on the tiny time machine.

"I get bored, and Gear wanted a challenge. We reverse-engineered the belt a few years ago."

Lantern watched Static carefully. "Because of this mission?"

Static nodded. "The team is going to be you, Batman, Aquawoman, Warhawk, and Micron."

"Warhawk, Micron and I can't go," said Merina. "Kai's right. We're legacies. If we meet up with our parents, we might not be born."

Batman made a noise in his throat but didn't say anything.

"You have to go," Static said. "Because you did." He offered her a small, kindly smile. Static always had been fond of her, of all of them, she remembered. "You'll need to change. No costumes, no names."

"Standard time travel protocol," said Batman.  
"Exactly. Use your first initials. Don't use your comms unless you have to; the League frequencies will pick you up. J'onn was away from the team then, so you won't have to worry about psychics."

"Is there anything else we should know?" asked Lantern.

Static shook his head. "Just ... Be careful?" He turned his head to take them all in with the words. Merina thought he glanced at her a little longer than the rest but then she decided she was imagining things.

All right. This would be a simple extraction. Yes. Go in, get the kids, come home.

The door opened again and Micron entered the room. "All right. What's the situation?"

"I'll catch you up," said Static. "But first, you're going to need some new clothes."

* * *

As soon as the door of their quarters slid shut, Rex let out a breath. "You know this has 'bad idea' written on it in gigantic runes, right?"

Merina was already facing away from him going through the civilian clothes they kept here. "We'll go. We'll come back. The kids will be fine." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, and he wondered if she even noticed he was in the room with her.

He pulled off his mask and set it on the bed. "Hey," he said, coming up behind her and placing his arms around her waist. "It's gonna be okay. Arthur's a smart kid. He knows what to do when he's lost. We'll all be home before dinner."

"Yeah," she said, but she wouldn't look at him and she shimmied out of his arms to go back to finding them both appropriate clothes. She threw him a black shirt. "See if that still fits."

Rex started removing his armor. "'Rina, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She held a dark sweater against her chest before tossing it on the bed. "Shouldn't go with a skirt," she mumbled to herself. "Not sure what the style was that year."

"Only we haven't seen each other in a few days and you've barely said hello."

She continued her rummaging. "We can fool around after we get the kids back."

He chose to pretend that hadn't hurt as much as it did. "I wasn't talking about fooling around." He picked up the shirt, realizing he hadn't worn this old black turtleneck in years.

"You didn't call."  
"Huh?" He had the shirt halfway over his head.

"While you were on Galtos. You didn't call."

"We spent most of the time headed to Thanagar and back." The turtleneck fit reasonably well, though it was tighter than he remembered.

"I know. I was just worried. And now I'm worried about Arthur and Robin and it's ... I was worried about you, and you didn't call. I wondered if the Thanagarians blasted you two out of the sky or something and I'd never know." She handed him some dark jeans, but pulled away when he tried to touch her.

"Sorry." The defensiveness bubbled up. "I was kind of busy."

"I know." She held a pair of jeans against herself and sat down on the bed. She closed her eyes. "How's your father doing?"

Rex shrugged. "About how you'd expect." Over the last hour, he'd shoved his own ache into a small corner, to deal with when he had more time. Now was about the living.

She nodded. "He should come stay with us for a while."

"That's what I told him. You can guess what he said."

Merina absently played with her hair, pausing to touch her ears. "All right." She pulled off her uniform while Rex watched appreciatively. Okay, so after they got the kids and came back and made sure everyone was fine, he and Merina were going to spend some time together alone, preferably naked.

Although, considering the way her sweater hugged her chest after she put it on, maybe she could be wearing just that.

She noticed his observation, and responded with a lift of one pretty eyebrow. Later, she promised with a look. "Get your glasses," she said aloud.

"Get yours."

* * *

Virgil looked over the team, stuck between present and past. He'd forgotten some details, which made sense considering how long ago it'd been. Funny, that within a two year span of his youth he'd been presented with evidence of how long he was going to live. First, meeting himself older and stronger and wiser, and then meeting the no longer young children of his friends.  
He hadn't waited around. That was one thing he prided himself on: having seen the future, he'd lived his life as much as he could regardless. He remembered John, twitchy and uncertain, remembered Batman, stoic and alone.

Not me. Not like that. He realized the others were watching him, waiting, and he berated himself for gathering wool again. Gettin' old, Hawkins. And he was. Pops had just made it to eighty, Sharon to eighty-six, and here he was at a respectable ninety-three.

Everything went off the rails after this. He told himself he wasn't afraid of what happened next.

"You people look like rejects from a 'Matrix' casting call," he said finally. Everyone in black, everyone with dark glasses, yes. He remembered this.

Virgil handed out the little time machines. "They're set to return two hours from now. You can't change them, so don't try."

"Why aren't we returning immediately?" asked Kai-Ro. He wore a dark grey mock turtle under a black jacket.

"No chance of overlap this way," said Virgil, this one lie smooth from years of practice.

"Click once to go back, click twice to come forward. You'll arrive in an alley a few blocks from the Metro Tower. I'd set you down inside the Tower but after the kids arrive, everything will be on high alert. They'll be looking for unauthorized beam-ins. This way no one will see you come. Ideally, no one should see you go."

Batman said, "You don't sound so sure on that."

Eighteen. Terry had been eighteen when Virgil had met him the first time, and Virgil had been just a kid who thought he was cool because he had a few powers. Time rushed inside Virgil's head like wind.

"Just go. Get the kids. Come back. And be careful."

The five of them examined their wrists, where the devices looked like simple watches. One by one, they winked out of sight.

Everything had to start somewhere.

Virgil looked around the room. Everyone was there who was supposed to be there, but then, would any one of them know if someone was missing, was added, was changed? Too many patches to the fabric of reality, and the whole thing just might fall apart.

Virgil said, "Kal, I need you to do me a favor."  
"Sure."

"Get on the comm, ring up Atlantis. Tell them we need a doctor." Before anyone could ask him questions he wasn't sure he could answer, he went to the door. "I have to go warm something up."

* * *

Bruce felt the Metro Tower materialize around him. He'd requested the direct beam to save time, although a part of him quietly kept track, reminding himself that each use of the transporter cost twenty thousand dollars. He did not allow a smirk to cross his features, remembering the first few wild days on the second Watchtower, when Flash was playing with the controls and beamed himself back and forth to the planet fifteen times before Bruce had threatened to break his arms.

The Atom was on duty in Ops. "They're in the conference room," he said. "Any idea who they are?"

"I'll see," he said, noncommittally.

Two children, no ID, no explanations, found in the corridors. Shayera said they knew his name. He'd been lax, too lax, with his secret. Too many people in the League knew. Too many outside. Waller knew, which meant he had a file at what had been Cadmus, which meant almost anyone could know.

And these children.

He opened the conference room. Shayera sat at the table, a chessboard between herself and a young boy Bruce didn't know. A girl, also unknown, sat at the table kicking her feet, her face lighting up when she saw him.

They were both perhaps eight or nine years old --- the old pain touched his soul --- the girl dark-haired and dark-eyed, the boy blond and blue.

"Who are you?" he asked. "And how do you know my name?"

The door closed behind him.

Shayera stood. "If you've got these two, I've got things to do."

"Do you have to go?" asked the boy.

"It's been fun, kid. Really."

The child took her hand, but didn't hang onto her. "Thanks for playing."

"You're pretty good," she said, a smile at her lips. Later, she would tell Bruce that the child had beaten her twice out of five games, and he would ask her not to discuss it further, and within a month, he would hold Ace as she died and he would forget the game, the child, the future, everything.

"I had a good teacher," said the boy. "Good-bye." He watched her leave and Bruce noted the pain on the child's face when Shayera could no longer see it.

"Tell me what you can," said Bruce. "What year are you from?"

The girl grinned. "Told you he was the one to talk to."

"2083," said the boy.

"You're a long way from home."

"We had an accident," said the boy. "We need to get back."

"I don't have a time machine."

"Green Lantern rings can travel through time," the boy said.

"Why didn't you ask for Green Lantern?"

The girl recited, "'Time travel rule number one. Find Batman.'"

The boy said, "The less we talk to other people, the better."

Bruce watched him as he said, "You talked to Aquaman and Shayera." A smile twitched on the boy's mouth with both names. Interesting.

"We just want to go home," said the girl. "Can you help us?"

Bruce sighed. "Wait here. I'll see what I can do."

"Where are you going?" asked the girl.

"I shouldn't be in the room with you. The more contact we have, the more it endangers the timeline."

"You should stay," she said. "It'll be okay."

Bruce knew better than that. "I'll return if I can."

The girl nodded. "It was ... nice to meet you." Dark hair and dark eyes and her face which spoke of ancestry both Caucasian and Asian. He didn't dare speculate whose child she was going to be.

"Be good," he told her and the boy, because he thought he should, and he locked the door behind him.  
There were two techs standing close by. "Watch this door. No one goes in or out without my clearance."

"Yes, sir," said the taller tech. Bruce went down the corridor to where he wouldn't be observed, then touched his ear.

"Batman to Green Lantern. Where are you right now?"

* * *

As Static had indicated, they materialized in an alley.

"Everyone is here, everyone is well?" Kai-Ro looked at his team. "We will keep our original plan. A small extraction team will go to the Tower. Micron ... "

"No names," said Batman.

Kai-Ro nodded. "Stick with initials, then. W, with me. M, T, R, remain nearby. Don't talk to anyone. We will rendezvous outside. If anything changes, we will contact you."

"Our communicators won't work," Warhawk said.

"They will if we piggyback on the JL frequencies of this time," said Micron. "Adjust your earpieces."

Aquawoman asked, "Anyone remember the channels?" After a few tries, they found one that worked. Micron shrunk down to the size of a penny. Kai-Ro lifted him to his pocket.

They walked as casually as they could towards the Metro Tower. Micron was a comforting presence in his jacket pocket; he trusted all his teammates with his life, but the others were far too close to this mission and he still did not comprehend why Static had insisted they come.

"This place is so different," said Batman. Not for the first time, Kai-Ro was struck with how much of a change the man exhibited between masked and not. In his costume, he carried the weight of a long legacy. Out of it, he was just another human.

"I like it," said Merina. Kai expected her to take Warhawk's arm, and was surprised when she didn't.

A block from the Tower, they separated. Kai-Ro and Micron continued towards their destination, the others hung back to watch them go from a distance.

It was rarely a good idea to leave Warhawk and Batman alone together on a mission, as they fought like cats in a bag, but Aquawoman was there and was unafraid of stepping in when necessary. They'd be fine for a few minutes.

At the locked door, Kai-Ro looked up into the camera. "Hello. I apologize for the intrusion, but I believe my niece and nephew have wandered into your facility."  
A few tense moments passed, and then a voice came over the speaker: "Please step inside."

* * *

Robin wasn't very good at chess. She kept picking up her remaining knight and making galloping noises around the board, and Arthur finally gave up. "I don't know why your dad keeps bringing you over to play. You don't play anything good."

"I do so," she said.

"You can't play chess. You have a stupid Super name. You can't even swim right."

"Those are all games you want to play. We never play games that I'm good at. Chess and swimming are dumb anyway."

"They are not!"

"They are so. Besides, you're not the only one who can do cool acrobat things, and I don't even need a fish tank."

Robin climbed up the back of her chair and balanced on her hands. Then, wavering a little, she turned it into a one-handed handstand. She pushed off and jumped, just missing her landing and skidding onto her butt.

"Robin!" Arthur shouted, and went to her, but she waved him away, rubbing her bottom.

"Owie."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Lemme try again."

"I believe you, okay? It's bad enough we're here. It'd be worse if you broke your neck." Robin grinned, and Arthur added, "Your dad would kill me."

She laughed. "Yeah."

"Okay. So what do you want to play?"

* * *

For a day that had started out with dragons in England and a mud monster in Japan, Virgil was having a great time. This summer internship thing with the League was everything he'd dreamed.  
Okay sure, he and Richie shared a little room in the Metro Tower, and they weren't allowed to go on any missions without adult League members even though the two of them had been doing the superhero thing for years now, and the older Leaguers insisted they take a bunch of classes on unarmed combat, philosophy, stealth and other things that Virgil just didn't care about at all.

But he got to work with the Justice League, and he got paid a little bit that was going directly into his college savings. Pops had insisted on that, even though Batman had already taken Virgil and Richie aside and told them that as long as their grades stayed good, college would be covered.

Perks. He was a superhero, and he was working with the League and there were perks, and one of these was lunch.

"You gonna stare at that all day?" Green Lantern asked him.

"Sorry," said Virgil, and he took a big bite of his chili dog. GL was right, these were the best dogs in Metropolis. "This is good. Thanks."

"No problem," said GL, finishing off his hotdog and chewing on a fry. "Sometimes I like to get away from the canteen food. Flash found this place two days after we started construction on the Metro Tower."

"Figures." Richie was going to be sorry he missed this, though Richie was adjusting to the whole "hanging with the heroes" thing pretty well and probably wouldn't be impressed anyway.

Virgil wanted to remember all of this. This summer, this day, everything, he wanted to stow it away in his heart and take out these good times and wonder at them. This wasn't the life he'd expected to live, and he wanted to savor it.

Maybe GL knew that, because he offered Virgil a rare smile as he sipped his own soda. "You did good this morning against that mud thing."

"Thanks." And he was never ever going to get tired of praise from his hero, not as long as he lived.

GL dropped his smile and touched his ear. "Lantern here. I'm a few blocks from the Tower." He paused. "No, we weren't briefed when we got back. Static. We'll be right there." He moved his hand from his comm. "Sorry, kid, We have to get back."

"Okay." His day wasn't anywhere near getting ruined. He wolfed the last couple of fries and followed GL outside. "Is there another emergency?"

"Batman wouldn't say. Come on."

Weird. Virgil let himself wander behind GL as they walked. He'd only been to Metropolis a few times and he loved the feel of the city, the graceful touch of the skyscrapers against the clouds. He loved Dakota first and forever, but this was a pretty city.  
As they reached the Tower, something played at the edge of his hearing, a voice familiar but unplaceable.

GL stopped up short, his head twisting around. Virgil saw a bunch of tourists near the Tower, in clumps and groups. One clump looked like misplaced extras from one of the "Matrix" movies. Also, they weren't taking pictures of the Tower, but arguing with each other, and that was the group GL was now walking towards as though drawn by a magnet.

One turned his head and Virgil's brain prodded him, reminding him of a discharge, an accident, Bruce Wayne gone impossibly old, himself an adult, and ...

"Batman?" he said, at the same moment Green Lantern said, "Rex?"

* * *

To be continued 


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

Time and Tide (3/5)  
a Justice League Unlimited / Batman Beyond story  
by Merlin Missy  
Copyright 2006  
PG-13

* * *

"And whose bright idea was it to leave them alone?" Rex hadn't started shouting yet, thank Neptune.

Merina hated being on missions with Rex and Terry. They were both her friends, each a great warrior in his own right, and when they were together with the full League, no one had better get in their way. More, she was almost certain that Terry was one of the best male friends Rex had ever had, though neither would admit it.

However, left to themselves, or to missions with just one other person, they sniped at each other constantly. The rest of the team expected her to break them up when they got rough, because she was assumed to have some measure of control over both. After all, she'd dated Terry and was still his closest friend in the JLU, and everyone knew she and Rex were together. But in practical terms, that only meant that neither would take a swing at her if she stepped in the middle while they scuffled.

"I wasn't there," Terry said. "I was busy in Gotham."

"So was I," she said, not sure if that was a good idea to mention.

There'd been a disturbance in the harbor, something the Navy had picked up on their monitors but couldn't identify, and she'd been asked to check it out personally. A little investigation had revealed that Erissa had ordered some training exercises for the Atlantean fleet and one small group had gotten too close to the shore. She'd dealt with it right before the alert had come through.

None of this made the flash in Rex's eyes any easier to take when he glanced between them, nor was she fooled when he said, "You both left the kids alone?" instead of anything else about why she might be in Gotham.

"No," said Terry, his voice starting to lower. "We left them with everyone who was in the Tower, and you _don't_ get to argue about that with all the times you've both left Arthur there."

"I've never left him alone," Merina said defensively. "And we can't leave him at the house by himself."

"Have you considered getting a babysitter?"

"We did," said Rex. Three, actually, but Arthur hadn't been in control of his powers and not one of the sitters' houses still had its original plumbing.

"Find another one. The Watchtower is no place for a kid to grow up."

"I grew up there," said Rex.

"And you turned out so well."

"Enough!" said Merina, as she saw both sets of hands form fists. "If you two don't quit it, I'm personally going to feed you both to sharks."

"Rex?" came a too-familiar voice, as another voice said, "Batman?"

Argument completely forgotten, the three of them turned to see two very recognizable costumes headed in a beeline towards them.

"Oh no," Merina breathed.

"Look casual," said Terry, suddenly taking an interest in the scenery.

Rex kept staring as John and a teenager who could only be a young Static approached them.

"It _is_ you," said John. "What are you doing here?"

Sometimes she was glad Rex was smarter than he looked. "Honey, look! It's Green Lantern! Hey, can I have your autograph?"

John stopped, confusion all over his face. "Rex, what the hell?"

Terry shot a look to Rex, just as Static said, "You know these guys, GL?"

He wasn't dumb, but subterfuge had been his mother's gift. "How do you know my name?" he asked quietly.

John's voice dropped. "There was a timeline shift. Batman and I came into the future."

"You're Batman," said young Static to Terry. "I remember you."

"I remember," said Terry after a moment. "But it was a lot longer for me than it was for you."

"I'll bet."

John asked Rex, "Why are you here?"

"There was an accident. We came to retrieve a couple of civilians who got transported back." He paused. "I don't remember meeting you. I mean, young you."

"Batman made it not happen. Timeloop."

"But you met me. You know who I am."

John nodded.

"But that's not right," Rex said. "You said I was an accident."

"A what?" asked Static.

"Don't worry about it, kid," said Terry.

"Everybody stop talking right now," said Merina. "This is bad. Anybody says anything else, someone's going to wink out of existence and we're not even going to remember they were ever here."

"Where are the civilians?" John asked her, though his eyes were still on his son.

"Inside the Tower. Can you get them for us?"

"I think Batman, _our_ Batman, is with them right now. I'll bring them out."

"We've already got a man inside," said Terry.

"Green Lantern to Batman," John said, touching his ear. "There's someone coming for the civilians. He's trustworthy." He continued to look at Rex. "Yes, I'm sure. All right." He pulled his hand away. "He was just interrogating your friend."

"Poor guy," said Static.

* * *

Glen waited outside the door with Stan just like Batman had told them. He stood as still as he could but inside he was ready to shout. This was the big one. This was what they'd been waiting for ever since they'd gotten the jobs here.

He grinned and nodded at Stan, who placed a casual ear near the door.

"Anything?" Glen asked.

"Sh," said Stan.

Stan had been fitted with a doohickey that made his hearing supersharp when he focused. He'd said --- over dinner, miles from the Metro Tower --- that it was weird, having to tune out conversations from other rooms, and it had given him headaches until he'd learned to control it better.

Glen had been fitted with contact lenses that transmitted the things he looked at on a frequency the League hadn't detected yet, though they didn't work so well around the dirty hawk or that 'tard who pretended to be one. Glen wasn't stupid. He knew that Grodd's bitch was into magic and that something the hawks had or did disrupted that sort of thing.

Anyway, as long as he remembered to take them out when he wasn't home, he was probably fine.

Grodd had arranged the jobs after the Martian had left. No Martian, no pre-employment mindsweep. "Collect what information you can," Grodd had said, and Glen and Stan's offshore accounts had been growing ever since.

"Got it," breathed Stan.

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Just heard one of them call the other 'Robin.'"

"Bingo." Glen activated his communicator. The rumor had gone through the Metro Tower an hour ago: two kids had shown up who knew Batman's real name. _Everybody_ knew about Batman and little boys. Why the boy wasn't in costume was anyone's guess, but Glen knew without any doubt that Grodd would pay a lot if they brought him Robin. They'd been hanging outside the room, hoping for a glimpse, when the Bat had set them to watch.

"_What?_" came the impatient response over his communicator. Not Grodd, but one of his flunkies, the Key maybe. Glen never did know all the C-list names. He had no intention of staying C-list.

"It's Sycamore. We need a distraction. Level two."

There was a long pause. "_There in five minutes. Starting now._"

* * *

Kai-Ro waited impassively as Batman questioned him, answering as simply as he could. No, the children were not his. Yes, he was taking care of them today. No, he wasn't sure how they'd managed to slip away from him.

Simple lies. Easy to remember.

Then Batman had taken him into a room, alas one without the children, and had shut the door.

"What year are you from?"

"Excuse me?"

"You don't have any ID, and you're a terrible liar. What year are you from?"

Kai ignored the snickering he shouldn't have heard from his pocket.

"And you can tell your friend to come out. We picked him up on the scanner when you both walked through the door."

"You're good," said Micron, climbing out and growing to normal size. "But they always said you were."

"We'd prefer not revealing our year of origin," Kai-Ro said.

"So you _are_ time travelers. What are you doing here?"

"We've come to retrieve the children and return home."

Micron said, "They were playing with something they shouldn't have been."

"How do I know you're not here to abduct them to a different part of the future? Villains can travel through time as easily as heroes."

Kai-Ro reached into his other pocket and slipped on his ring just as Batman touched his ear.

"Go ahead. Are you sure?" He watched Kai-Ro. Micron was looking around the room with a fascinated expression. Kai recalled that he'd spent some time in this Tower before it had been destroyed.

Batman finished his conversation. "Green Lantern says you can be trusted."

"I can, but I am unsure as to how he even knows I'm here. Still," he pulled his hand from his pocket and allowed Batman to see the ring, and the tiny repair at the base where an electroaxe had once severed it, "I hope his reassurance means we pass inspection without further questions?"

Batman nodded once, just as the alarm went off.

Over the loudspeakers, Mister Terrific's voice boomed: "Gamma Level Alert! Supervillain sightings, downtown Metropolis, all on-duty League members report!"

"Wait here!" said Batman, and he left the room, running towards Ops.

Micron and Kai shared a glance. "Can you locate them with your ring?" Micron asked.

Kai willed the ring to look through the walls around them, and was surprised when he could see nothing. "They appear to be shielded."

"Then we look for them on foot."

* * *

Virgil still wasn't used to the earbud communicator, so when Mister Terrific started shouting, he jumped just a little. Green Lantern touched his own ear.

"Emergency downtown," said GL. "You guys care to lend a hand?"

"We're not really dressed for the occasion," said the other Batman.

There was an explosion not fifty feet away. GL's head shot around and he flung a beam of green light at a building Virgil just seen start to shake. The other tourists and sightseers screamed and ran, and there were more screams from further off.

"You three!" GL shouted. "Crowd control! Get these people somewhere safe! Static, stay with them."

Before Virgil could argue or point out that he was practically an adult, thank you very much, GL set the building back solidly and flew off.

"So much for keeping a low profile," said the new Batman

The guy GL had called Rex put his hands to his mouth and shouted, "Everybody! This way! The bad guys are downtown!" To the woman with them he said, "Park?"

"Park," she said. "You two gather people over here. Static, come with me." She dashed off and Virgil cast a disc and followed her in the air.

As they shepherded people towards the relative safety of the Park, the woman asked him in what Virgil thought wasn't at all a casual way, "Is Aquaman on duty today?"

"He was earlier. Over here!" He waved people closer. He saw a man run and fall, and he zipped over to help him up and bring him to where they were congregating. He added to the woman, "I think he left already, though. Um. What can I call you?"

"Oh. Call me M."

"Okay." The future Batman had some pretty weird friends, but Virgil didn't have time to think much about it.

* * *

The door slid open. Arthur hoped it was Nana again, or at least Batman. Instead, two guys in purple he didn't know stood right outside.

"Batman says to come with us," the bigger one said.

Arthur looked at Robin, who couldn't quite hide her smile. He didn't get it. Her dad was their Batman, sure, but why did she care about the old Batman? Girls were just weird.

They followed the guys through the corridors towards the side entrance, where the Javelins and other vehicles docked. Arthur guessed Batman must be waiting for them outside. Maybe he'd take them back to the Batcave or to someone he knew with a time machine.

In the small hangar, which would be rebuilt and get much cooler by their time, the smaller guy said, "Batman said we have to take you to him in a transport."

Arthur stopped, and grabbed Robin's hand. Something wasn't right. "When did he leave the Metro Tower?"

"A while ago," said the taller one, smiling in a way Arthur really didn't like. "Now be good and get inside."

Arthur squeezed Robin's hand. She glanced at his hand and then looked at his face. He had telepathic contact with sea creatures, and on rare occasions with his mother, but still he willed Robin to understand: _This is wrong. We can't go with them._

For the first time, he noticed that the hangar was otherwise empty. There was a security camera. Someone might be monitoring.

"No!" he shouted as loud as he could. "We want to see Batman right now!"

The guys looked scared, and then the taller one grabbed Arthur and clamped a hand over his mouth. Robin ducked from the other one and ran while Arthur kicked and struggled. One kick landed solidly in the guy's groin, but instead of letting go, the guy pulled back the hand from his mouth and punched Arthur.

The world spun. The left side of his face lit up with pain just as the hand clamped viciously back into place, cutting off his air. His left eye throbbed and looked out on a red-tinged world.

"You stupid kid," the guy wheezed against his ear. "If you weren't worth more alive than dead right now, I'd gut you and leave you." He dragged Arthur towards the transport.

A quick, stifled scream from not far away told him that the shorter guy had caught Robin. He brought her struggling into the transport with them. Arthur was tossed onto the floor in the back, Robin thrown beside him. Both immediately rolled to their feet, then fell back again as the transport lurched forward. The shorter guy was driving, already headed for the opening doors.

The taller guy held onto the side of the transport for support, and managed to get a firm hold of Robin. She pulled against his arm at her neck. Arthur crouched down for an attack and the tall guy squeezed. Robin's eyes went big and terrified.

"One more move and I pop her head off. You got me?" Arthur nodded, watching the arm relax just a hair.

* * *

Bruce checked the alert in Ops, ignoring the scattering of the other on-duty heroes. "What are they doing?" he asked Mister Terrific over the comm.

"Causing mass panic."

"But what's their goal? What are they taking? They usually have a target."

"Unsure. It _looks_ like they're just blowing stuff up."

Bruce thought. Sometimes it was a touch --- just a touch --- intimidating to be on the team with Mister Terrific, but Bruce hadn't become who he was by being easily intimidated. Terrific didn't see a pattern. That meant there wasn't one, or that Terrific didn't have all the pieces.

Item one: two children from the future materialize in the corridor. Item two: a man claiming to be their uncle but actually a Green Lantern from the future comes looking for them, with another man in his pocket. Item three: their curiously-organized foes suddenly attack.

He touched his ear again. "Call in some of the backups."

Then he went to check on the children.

* * *

"Batman to Green Lantern."

"Go ahead."

"Our guests have vanished."

John stopped. Star Sapphire blasted a beam at him which he easily deflected. More than a little worried, and it was strange, being worried about someone who hadn't been born yet, he grabbed her with a construct and pushed her more roughly than necessary into a car, which he bent around her to hold her. To be safe, he also plucked the jeweled tiara from her head.

He told her, "Can't play right now."

Shayera flew in beside him. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She was really the last person he wanted to see right now. She couldn't be allowed to see Rex, to meet him. Bad enough John himself knew. "Sorry. Gotta go."

* * *

Merina kept half an eye out among the heroes coming from the Tower. Static might have been wrong, and it had been so long.

When the transport emerged, she stopped to watch. That wasn't right. The rest of the team was beaming or flying in to the battle; transports were for long-range movement of personnel.

And then, from very far away in the back of her mind, a tickle: _Help. Please help._

"Arthur ... " she breathed. He was in the transport, calling for help from any sea creature nearby. Already the harbor churned with sudden life.

She shouted, "Static!"

The boy's head snapped around.

She raised her arms, calling the waters and the tiny creatures within the edge of the tide. A funnel formed in the harbor, knocking boats adrift from their docks and frightening the gulls.

"Charge me!" she said. He paused, then stretched out a purple beam, electrifying the saltwater surge she sent towards the transport.

* * *

Robin clutched at the arm around her throat. Playing Supers was one thing, but this was scary.

"We've got a problem," said the short guy. Robin could just see enough of the screen to see the impossible: a purple-sparking twist of water headed right for them.

The guy turned the controls, dipping them to avoid it. Robin dug her heel into the tall guy's boot, just like her dad had shown her, and brought her elbow into his stomach. Arthur launched himself at the guy's head, and the three of them fell to the floor.

Arthur was first to his feet and grabbed for the door, yanking it open just as the tall guy grabbed his foot. Robin heard the crack as Arthur's chin hit the metal floor. The door was open, and they were high above everything.

The tall guy held Arthur with one hand and pulled a gun out of the storage locker in the back with another.

"No no no no no," Robin said, skidding back from the door, from the man with the gun.

"Longjohn coming around," said the short guy.

* * *

She directed the flume, chasing the transport until the electrified water crashed against it, shorting and shuddering half the systems, holding it in precarious place.

This wasn't Merina's power, not one she could use well, but she'd practiced for years. Arthur could direct water like a choreographer, without thinking.

_Soft, now,_ she touched the tiny minds in the flood, alert and afraid of the electricity sparking through. _Hold where you are._

Arthur's call continued in the back of her mind.

Merina thumbed her comm knowing she would be overheard: "Mayday! JLU Mayday! Alpha and Beta targets are on the transport!"

* * *

Virgil zoomed up towards the stuck transport just as a hatch popped open. _Convenient._

Someone out of sight started firing at him. He ducked around the other side.

* * *

They turned the corner and Batman was there.

"Where are the children?" he demanded.

"We are looking for them," said Kai. "Where did you leave them?"

"Mayday!" Merina's voice came over the comm.

* * *

"What's holding us?" shouted Glen.

"Hold on," said Stan, using the scanners. "There. Four o'clock. Must be some water meta bitch."

Glen poked his head out again. That Static kid was nowhere in sight but he saw the chick below them. He flipped the firing from "single" to "auto" and took careful aim at her head.

Before he could get a bead on her, the brats tried to tackle him. He punched the Robin kid in the solar plexus. The girl grabbed his outstretched arm and bit him, hard.

Glen cursed and grabbed her by the hair, throwing her out the door. Her scream was caught by the wind.

That caught the water meta's attention.

Glen aimed for her again while she was distracted, but the transport jerked and he strafed her middle instead of her brains.

"We're free!" Stan shouted, punching it. Glen managed to get the door shut again.

The boy curled up in a ball in a corner.

Glen touched his private communicator. "This is Sycamore. We need a portal."

"_We're occupied,_" said the voice on the other end.

"We've got Robin."

"_Fine. Rejoin the rest in Metropolis and use the portal there._"

* * *

Virgil heard the scream and dove without thinking. The girl was all arms and legs, but she grabbed onto his hand like she'd been doing it all her life.

"Gotcha," said Virgil, as she clung to him on the way down.

Another retort came from above them, and he instinctively flew away from the sound, but the gun wasn't aimed at him.

There were a lot of things he held onto, whether he wanted to or not. That night at the docks. The day Mom hadn't come home. He knew there was no way he was ever going to forget the sight of watching someone be torn in half by machine-gun fire.

He held the little girl's head, shielding her, unable to tear his own eyes away.

The water flume fell like rain around them.

Over his head, he heard the transport roar out of sight.

* * *

Arthur could barely breathe. Everything hurt. Robin was gone. The tiny mental connection he'd established with his mother had snapped abruptly.

He splayed his fingers and looked up at the guys in purple. He knew to the bottom of his soul that, should he decree it right now, he could order all the water in their bodies to boil.

He wished. But he would not let himself make the command.

_"There are lines we don't cross,"_ said his dad's voice in his head.

Arthur wasn't human, not like the surface humans. With his powers came the responsibility of using them wisely. Every day, his parents had told him that.

_"We don't kill," Dad said. "We use force to stop the bad guys. We don't destroy them."_

There was more, and Superman's face was never quite right when he stood and listened as they told him these things.

But Arthur _wished._

* * *

John's comm went off just as Rex and the guy Static had called Batman came into sight: "Static to Green Lantern. The transport. They're in the transport."

A transport had gone over a few seconds ago. John went to follow it, when Virgil's voice came back again. "The lady's hurt. Whatever her name is. She's hurt bad." Now John could hear the panic.

"Dammit."

Batman was running out of the Tower with two people John didn't recognize in tow. "You three!" John yelled, "The civilians are in the transport!"

He'd like to say he was surprised to see one of them ring up a bubble and fly on a beeline towards the location where the transport had gone, but really, that was the least weird thing that had happened today.

He landed by Rex, who was already turning to follow.

"Hold on," John said. "Static just contacted me. One of your people is down. Come on." Before he could object, John surrounded him and his friend in another bubble and headed off to where Static's signal came from.

It was bad in the air, and worse on the ground.

The other Batman touched his ear. "K, W, get back here now!"

There was a little girl. _The civilians are children?_ The other Batman lifted her up and held her as she started to cry against his neck. He made soothing noises into her hair, and John didn't miss the look of relief on his face.

He also didn't miss the complete panic on Rex's as he knelt down by the woman and started looking for vital signs. She was breathing, barely. John scanned her with his ring but it didn't tell him anything he didn't already know on sight.

Her eyes drifted open and her mouth, touched with blood, curved into a smile. "Idiot," she said. No, he thought a second later. That wasn't quite what she'd said.

The bubble carrying the others set down side him; Bruce must have stayed with the fight. The Lantern said immediately, "We're aborting the mission. Prepare for return."

"No," said Rex, and the woman echoed him softly. "We have to get him back," he said, his hand absently stroking her hair.

The Lantern was already at her other side, playing with her watch. "She will not survive in this time. She may not survive in ours."

The other Batman gave the little girl a kiss on the head, then set her down. "W, take them both home. We'll stay here."

"Send ... R. You know, these are stupid codenames."

"He is right. You are the most logical choice," said the Lantern.

"You haven't been made yet," the other Batman said.

"Hurry," Rex pleaded.

W nodded and took the little girl's hand, then knelt and did something to the woman's watch. The three of them vanished, the light around them bending and shimmering for a split second.

Rex sat back, looking at the place where they'd been.

The Lantern said to him gently, "Whatever happens to her next will not occur for decades."

"I know. I don't think they're going to have time to save her." He looked pale, tired. John placed a hand on his shoulder. Too much he didn't know, nothing he could say to help.

Someone was missing. "Where's Static?"

The other Batman looked over his shoulder. "Booting in the bushes."

John's mouth quirked in sympathy. His first time was when he'd been in the Corps. Nineteen and cocky, he hadn't thought anything would faze him, and then Harry Marshall's leg had blown off.

An odd expression crossed the other Lantern's face. "Static," he called. "Are you better?"

Virgil, still not looking well, came out from behind the bushes. "Yeah," he said, not sounding like he meant it.

The Lantern placed a hand on his shoulder. "There is something you must do for us. Our friend is wounded very badly. There is a device in our time that might save her, but we will not be able to activate it and tune it properly for her ourselves. You'll need to do it for us."

"Me?"

"You sent us here," said the other Batman.

"I did?"

"You will," said John. "I'll explain later. Just pay attention." And John thought that he would pay attention too. Just in case.

The Lantern said, "The device is called a MedLim 597. You'll need to turn it on an hour before she returns and calibrate it," he paused, glancing at his friends, then continued, "calibrate it for Atlantean physiology." That answered one question.

"Got it," said Static. "MedLim 597, hour before she gets back, Atlantean. When do you guys leave, uh, come back?"

"You will know when. You must remember this for the rest of your life," said the Lantern.

"So write it down," said the other Batman.

"How are we going to find the other kid?" John asked.

"_We're_ not," Bruce said, appearing beside him. "The transport got away with the rest of the criminals. Another magical portal. We need to find out who's generating those."

Rex said, "You've got confiscated Thanagarian weapons on the orbital Watchtower. Equip the Javelins with pieces of Nth metal and it'll cut down on some of the effects."

"Enough advice from the future," Bruce said, scowling. "I repeat, we're not helping. We've had far too much contact with them already."

"The water has already passed through the sieve," said the Lantern. "This is not the time to concern ourselves with the shape of the holes. We need access to your equipment. The child has a communicator which can be used as a tracking device but we must make haste."

"Before the Secret Society pollutes the timeline further," said Bruce.

"Before they kill him," corrected the other Batman. John was watching Rex, and saw him grimace.

"How can I help?" asked Virgil.

Bruce said, "Go home. The more of us involved in this, the worse it gets."

"Back to your quarters," John told him. "Don't discuss what you've seen or heard with anyone, including Gear."

"But I wanna help. Besides, I already know what's going to happen."

"You know just enough," said the Lantern. "More could destroy us. Please."

"Okay," said Virgil, looking around at them all. "But tell me if you change your minds."

"Go," said Bruce.

"And write it down!" called the other Batman to his retreating back.

* * *

Static had told them what to expect, but even so, as Micron, Robin and Merina materialized, Cassie felt the world shift under her just a little as she saw the extent of Merina's injuries.

"She's ... " Micron began.

"We know," said Static, and they moved her into the unit as smoothly as they could.

Micron took Robin's hand and led her away from the mess. "Why are we in the medlab?" he asked.

Cassie stood beside Static as his fingers flew over the controls. The MedLim was a medical work of art. Properly calibrated and working, it could keep anyone alive indefinitely while doctors had a chance to examine their injuries more closely. Portable versions were standard on all ambulances. There was no way to know how many lives it had saved, although it had added yet another wrinkle to the public discourse about extending human life.

The patent was held by an electrical engineer named Virgil Hawkins, and the 597 was the most up-to-date version, still officially in beta testing but showing great promise for extraterrestrial matrices.

"Your devices were preset to return here," Static said, focusing on the panel. He touched the last sequence of buttons. The MedLim's hum changed to "in-process."

Merina was alive, in suspended animation. Cassie could see her through the plexiglass, like a broken doll in a box. Static had already called for a doctor from Atlantis, someone familiar enough with how her body was supposed to work and who could potentially put it back together again. He was due to arrive any time, though the tick of the clock no longer figured into her lifespan.

"Now we wait," Static said.

* * *

Arthur had long since lost track of where they'd taken him. The two guys in purple --- he never learned their names --- landed the transport and dragged him out into a landing bay he didn't know.

There was a big monkey waiting for them. Also a couple other costumes, no one he knew but he was sure none of them were friendly.

"This had better be good, gentlemen," said the monkey.

"Toldja we got Robin," said the taller one, squeezing Arthur's arm until he winced.

"What's your name, boy?" the monkey asked.

Arthur kept his mouth shut. This was bad. Mom and Dad had told him about paradoxes and stuff. Nana and his grandfather and the old Batman would take "I can't tell you" for an answer. Bad guys probably wouldn't.

A guy with a big hat and great big teeth came over to him, peering. "The lad is awfully small. I've engaged the Bat and his bird-brat before. This one is no more than a child."

"We're sure," said the short guy in purple. "He and the other kid knew Batman's real name _and_ she called him 'Robin.'"

"No, she didn't," said Arthur.

"So he can speak after all." The monkey smiled at him. No, it was a gorilla. Gorillas were apes, not monkeys. "Tell us what you know and we won't hurt you."

"You're going to hurt me no matter what."

"That's true," said the gorilla, turning and walking away. "Think of it as the difference between breaking your arms and cutting them off."

Water. There was water nearby. He felt for the minds of the little fish that dwelled there, but few remained and the ones that did had a darkness around them. They served another master. He reached farther. Amphibians and reptiles never listened to him, though he felt the sleek minds of alligators nearby.

Swampland.

"Bring him," said the ape. The guys in purple dragged him behind the gorilla. If he made a break for it, he could dive into the swamp, with or without the help of the animals there.

They led him to a small, dark room and threw him roughly to the ground. "So, when do we get paid?" asked the taller one.

"After I get my information from him." The gorilla bent over Arthur and smiled with gigantic yellow teeth. "Assuming he tells me something useful, you'll be paid handsomely. If he doesn't, you owe _me_." Seeing their confused faces, he added, "Time. Transport. Getting you the necessary security clearances. Plus, Star Sapphire and Riddler were caught in the little distraction we engineered for you. These things are expensive and if you've cost me without bringing me anything of value in return, I'll personally take it out of your hides."

He nodded to some of the other brightly-costumed villains who'd followed them in. The guys in purple were suddenly surrounded. "Take them somewhere and keep an eye on them," said the gorilla. "Then leave us. Tala, stay here."

Everyone left except the gorilla and a lady with purple hair. So far, everyone with purple was bad. Arthur made a note.

"Tala, my dear, have you had a chance to research that truth spell like I asked you?"

The woman nodded. "Is simple spell."

"Good. We'll use it on some of the others later. For now, I'd like you to cast it on our young friend here. Torture is rather gauche, don't you agree?"

The woman didn't answer. She knelt down beside Arthur and raised her hand at him. "_Veritas!_"

Quicksilver pain shivered through him. Before he could do more than gasp, it was gone.

"Now," said the gorilla. "What is your name?"

"Arthur!" The word burst out. He crawled to a sitting position, terrified. They didn't stop him. The woman stood up, a smirk on her face. The gorilla smiled.

"Arthur, are you Robin?"

"No." The rest of the truth bubbled inside of him. He wanted to tell. If they asked him, he would tell. If they didn't, he might gasp it out anyway.

He wondered if he could fight an alligator.

"Do you know who Robin is?"

"Yes."

"Who is Robin?"

"He killed her."

The gorilla's smile faded. "Who killed her?"

"The man in purple. The tall one. He pushed her out the door." He could still hear her scream in his head. _Sorry. I'm sorry._

"The little girl who was with you was Robin?"

"Yes."

"Robin is a boy," said the purple woman.

"I think our infiltrators made an error in judgement. Robin is also a little girl's name. He may not be completely useless, though. Tell me, _Arthur_, do you know Batman's real name?"

Arthur's eyes went wide. He shouldn't have known, but his mother wasn't always careful. He pressed his lips together tightly but the "Yessss" hissed out.

"What is Batman's real name?"

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

Time and Tide (4/5)  
a Justice League Unlimited / Batman Beyond story  
by Merlin Missy  
Copyright 2006  
PG-13

* * *

Terry asked, "Is this necessary?" The purple spandex was brighter than anything he'd worn since his mom stopped picking out his clothes.

"You'll blend in better this way," said Bruce.

There was so much Terry wanted to ask him, say to him, and nothing he dared. Bruce had been cold in his grave since three months before Robin was born.

God, it was weird seeing him this young in that suit.

If they screwed this up badly enough, Robin would never have been born because Terry himself would never have existed, unless Waller already had her DNA sample sitting somewhere quietly like a cuckoo's egg, waiting for the right engineering, the right couple. He'd moved past his anger at her in slow, jerky stages, shedding the betrayal like old scabs. The last one still clung but he knew it would peel soon. The sonogram said the baby was going to be a boy, and he and Dana had already agreed his name would be Warren.

Terry hadn't told his mother or Matt. He'd told Dana, and eventually he'd told Max. Gordon was dead, Drake and Grayson were dead. Maybe he'd have told them too. No one in the League knew, though sometimes he thought Superman suspected. When Arthur turned fifteen or thereabouts, and after Terry had made sure to have the "you are never to touch my daughter or I will kill you with my thumb" conversation with him, Terry would tell him. If they lived.

Warhawk looked oversized and uncomfortable in his uniform; GL looked too skinny and kind of geeky.

"Sunglasses will be too conspicuous," Bruce said. "Don't wear them. You," he said to Warhawk, "just don't make eye contact with anyone. The three of you shouldn't have contact with personnel in the Tower regardless."

They followed Bruce and Stewart into the Metro Tower. They were waved by without a second glance since they were with two of the original Leaguers. Terry tried not to gawk. This was the old Tower, and everything was painfully retro.

"In here," said Bruce. The equipment in the room looked like someone's old science project. Weird to think of it as state of the art tech.

Warhawk went up to one of the computers and said, "I haven't seen one like this since I was a kid."

"It will be adequate," said GL. "Thank you, gentlemen."

Bruce grabbed Stewart's arm and they left them alone.

"You guys can seriously make this old stuff work?"

"Sure," said Warhawk.

"We shall see," said Lantern. "I believe we can retask one of the League satellites for our own purposes from here. Then we may commence a scan for Arthur's communicator."

Terry let them work. He understood some of the tech that drove his suit because Bruce had made him learn, and he could change out the consumable parts on the 'wing and even at the Watchtower, but mostly he left it to Matt, who had the brains for it. Technology wasn't Terry's forte, even old tech.

Warhawk touched a panel. "Got it. Here."

Lantern peered over his shoulder. "Excellent. The alignment seems to be in our favor." They started discussing data frequencies, plugging a few test numbers into the system to see if their theory worked. "Perfect," said Lantern after a few minutes. "Go with the main frequency."

Then they stepped back.

"Did you find him?"

Warhawk looked at him like he was an idiot. "Now it has to scan the whole planet."

"How long will that take?"

Lantern said, "Based on the current level of technology, possibly an hour or more." He sat down on the floor. After a moment Terry joined him, leaving Warhawk to pace unhappily.

"Virgil should've beamed us in sooner," Warhawk said, more to himself than them.

"He didn't want a paradox," said Terry.

"It would not have been a paradox from our point of view," Lantern said. "Regardless, I do not understand why he made the rest of you come. Had the team been Flash and Cassandra and myself ... "

"Here we go," said Warhawk.

"I am simply stating something you both already know. You should not be here. You especially," he said to Warhawk.

"You don't think I get that?" His face fell. Terry tensed. He was thinking about Merina again. That was bad. They couldn't afford to get distracted, and Warhawk was already on his last nerve as it was. His woman was somewhere dying, his kid had been kidnapped by psychopaths, and his mom had just died and never mind that she was probably alive and walking around a few floors away from them right now.

There were two things Terry could do right now to take his mind off the badness that surrounded them. Picking a fight would be easy. Warhawk had more buttons than a fabric store and he was a perfect target to goad. On the other hand, he _had_ been having a rotten week and might just as happily rip off Terry's leg and shove it somewhere uncomfortable.

That left plan B. He'd make it up to GL someday.

"Well," said Terry, "we all know everything would be better if we'd just let Cassie do everything."

"Oh yeah," Warhawk snorted. "Because she can do no wrong."

Lantern frowned. "What are you two babbling about?"

"If you go to pick a team, Cassie's always your first choice."

"She is a full-time member and often on duty," said Lantern. "She is a valuable addition to many teams."

"I'm sure that's why you always assign her to yours," said Terry.

"That's none of your concern," Lantern snapped. "Cassandra and I ... "

"There isn't a 'Cassandra and you,'" Warhawk said. "She doesn't know you're alive. Not like that."

"You've got to let her go," Terry added as kindly as he could.

"This isn't any of your business."

"What about Robert?" Warhawk asked.

"I thought you didn't _like_ Robert." Lantern's voice had become very clipped and quiet.

Warhawk said, "I liked him. I just ... "

"You could do better," Terry said. None of them had really gotten across to GL that their objections to his last boyfriend had been because the guy had been a jerk. That had been Terry's primary objection anyway.

"Yeah," said Warhawk.

"But not as good as Cassandra?"

"We didn't say that," said Warhawk.

Terry said, "Cassie's a great girl. We all love her too. But she's not just out of your league, she's out of your ... Whatever's bigger than a league."

"Anyway," said Warhawk, "aren't you technically a priest?"

"Isn't your girlfriend technically married?" Lantern shot back.

The pair glared at each other and Terry thought that "distracted" maybe would have been better after all.

* * *

"You should've said something." Micron's voice was quiet. Virgil almost didn't hear him and had not heard him come back into the lab.

"Hm?"

"You knew what was going to happen. You should have said. She wasn't going to go on the mission anyway, but you sent her."

"I had to."

"Virgil, Merina's going to die." Fear trembled at the edge of his voice. It had been decades since they'd lost a member to a mission.

"She might. I only saw what happened up to when you brought her back here." He'd seen worse since, but not by much. The day Aquaman's daughter had come from the sea and asked to join them, he'd seen her face and he'd known, and he'd had nightmares for weeks.

"So why didn't you do something about it?"

"I did. I sent you back with your own devices so you could bring her forward again. I invented the machine that's keeping her alive right now."

"But why did you send her at all!" Micron wasn't one for shouting, but without realizing it, he was growing bigger as his voice raised. Virgil stared up at him calmly until he shrank back to normal size, then looked down at the instrument panel.

Virgil said, "That fire last week. How many kids did you save?"

"What?"

"Think."

"Two. Why?"

"That bridge collapse in Central City last month. Warhawk got there just in time and held up the thing until Superman could weld it back into place. Lot of people would have died."

"I know. What does ... "

"How many times have you saved my life? Because I can think of at least three. How many times have you saved the world?"

"Virgil."

"You talk to Susie or Alicia lately? See their grandkids at all? I bet Josie's getting big now. She was the one your mom left the totem to, wasn't she?"

Micron said nothing.

"You were in the past not an hour ago. You had the chance to edit the timeline, tell John not to go into that factory. It just about killed your mom when we thought he was dead. You could have spared her that."

"That's history. That had to happen. Merina's your friend!"

"This is _my_ history, Wayne. If I changed what happened to Merina, I'd risk changing everything else too. Change just one thing, and maybe John wouldn't go on that mission, or maybe he'd have stayed outside the factory, or maybe something else entirely would have happened, and you and your kids and your sisters and their families and Warhawk and possibly the whole world wouldn't be here right now. And I couldn't risk that, not for a friend, not for anything. We've edited the timeline so much already, I keep thinking one of these days it's going to unravel for good."

"Okay." He didn't look satisfied. He was a smart kid, though. Not a kid, Virgil reminded himself again. They all just looked like kids.

"Take Robin home. Tell her mom that Batman will be back soon."

Micron tilted his head. "So he's coming home alive?"

"As far as I know."

"And the others?" Virgil didn't meet his eyes. "Virgil ... "

"I don't know what it was that I saw, okay? It's not that I can't tell you, it's that I just don't know." John had talked to him, after. Then John had died, or they'd thought he had, and Batman pretended like he didn't remember anything at all. Virgil had been alone inside his own head, stuck with his own memories.

* * *

Bruce sat at Ops, monitoring what his future counterpart and his companions were doing to their satellite system. If anyone else noticed, he could take responsibility, and if they did something he didn't trust, he'd know it immediately.

He forced himself not to think about what he had seen thus far. He would not wonder whose child they had rescued, and whose they'd failed to save. He would not study and restudy the shape of his successor's face, wondering if he saw echoes of his own features, or Dick's, or Tim's. _Diana's?_

He would not think.

"This is odd," said the Atom, breaking Bruce from the reverie he was quite certainly not having.

Bruce tilted his head to listen.

Atom switched the controls and a message played over the large monitor: "Justice League, contacting the Justice League. Please respond."

"It's on our own frequency." Atom glanced at Bruce, who nodded and started triangulating the position of the broadcast's origin.

"Justice League here. Go ahead," said Atom.

"We have the kid. He hasn't been hurt. Yet. We want ten million and he'll be sent back safe."

Tracing, tracing, the signal had been bounced over a dozen relays. Bruce activated another program, voice-matching the kidnapper to one of the two techs they hadn't been able to locate.

"How do we know you've actually got him?" asked the Atom, stalling, one eye on Bruce's trace.

There was a hurried exchange of whispers on the other end. Bruce heard one of them mutter, "Say something, kid. Hurry up!" A sound, unidentifiable from this end, and then a sudden shout of pain in a young voice.

"You've got an hour," said the kidnapper. "Bring it to these coordinates. Non-metas only. Anything funny and the kid dies." The transmission stopped abruptly.

The trace ended at another satellite. If Bruce were prone to swearing, he'd have done so.

"Swell," said the Atom. "This is one of the kids Shayera and Aquaman found just wandering around?"

"Yes."

"And this makes it our problem how?"

"It doesn't. We don't negotiate with terrorists."

They'd vanished with the rest of the villains. Either they'd seen a good getaway, or they were in league with them. Since the bad guys had attacked and retreated with exactly the right timing to let them grab the children and get away, he was betting on the latter. But if they could pretend this was a simple kidnapping, then whoever was behind the recent organization of their enemies could continue to hide his or her hand.

"That's kinda cold. Even from you."

"There are over a billion children on the planet. If we pay the ransom for one, they'll abduct another child and another, and every child becomes a target."

"We can't let them just kill him." Bruce hadn't heard John come in, but he was schooled at acting unsurprised.

"We won't," Bruce said. "But the League can't be officially involved in paying the ransom or getting him back."

"So let's be unofficial."

Bruce ejected a copy of the transmission. "Ray, I need you to do me a big favor."

"Depends."

"Don't let anyone else listen to that file. This never happened."

"That's a pretty tall order."

"It's important," John said.

The Atom looked between them. "All right. You two going to explain this later?"

"No."

Down the corridors they hurried, into the small room where they'd left the three time-travelers. He opened the door and found them glowering at one another.

Bruce said nothing, simply loaded the recording into one of the consoles. "We've got word from someone who says they have the boy. We need you to confirm the voice ident."

He had no doubts that this was the child, but curiosity was one of his most insistent traits. He needed to establish exactly what they were dealing with in this situation. The young Lantern remained stoic, as Bruce had suspected. Bruce's successor twitched. Warhawk flinched when he heard the child scream, and later Bruce would discover his fingers had left deep indentations in the back of the chair where he'd rested his hand.

Bruce wondered if John had put it together yet.

"Where are they?" asked the younger Stewart through gritted teeth.

"Coordinates are here," Bruce said, automatically passing a data pad to the other Batman.

"Lead the way," said the other Lantern.

"Negative," Bruce said. "We've already had far too much contact with the three of you. Get the boy and leave and pray you haven't managed to negate your own existence." He ignored the glance John could not resist giving Rex.

"Get us outside," said the other Batman.

Again in the corridor outside, and they were almost to the door, when Aquaman turned the corner and almost ploughed them over. He didn't say "Sorry," and if he had, Bruce would've had him contained and searched him for mind-control devices on the spot. He merely nodded at them and continued on his way.

He heard Warhawk mutter to the others: "How bad have we already screwed things up? Relatively speaking?"

"Scale of one to ten?" the other Batman asked.

The other Lantern said in a quick whisper, "You're astoundingly fortunate not to have disappeared entirely thus far and I suspect, given another hour or so, neither of us will remember you ever existed."

Warhawk whispered back, "So this can just add to the pile of things I shouldn't have done today. Hey, Aquaman!"

Aquaman stopped and turned, clearly seeing the technician outfit and nothing more. "What?"

"I know you're busy and all, but the old lady's a big fan. Could you sign an autograph for her?" Gone was the gruff, soldierly voice Bruce was accustomed to, replaced by a passable impression of someone who really was in this job for the shoulder-rubbing with superheroes. Bruce reassessed the man's acting abilities, reminding himself that Warhawk's mother had fooled even Batman himself back in the day.

Aquaman grumbled, then squiggled something approaching a signature on the paper Warhawk had magically produced. He stowed it in his breast pocket. Bruce also noticed that, despite an already-rigid spine, almost certainly formed by years of remonstrations on John's part, somehow Warhawk was managing to stand up even straighter in Aquaman's presence.

"Thank you," he said, touching the paper almost reverently. "It'll really make her day."

Aquaman glared at him, but Bruce saw the slight quirk under his beard that said it was for show. "I'm sure you have work to do," Aquaman said, and turned away again.

The other Batman looked askance at Bruce. "You check in with Robin lately?"

The other Lantern reached behind him and slapped him on the back of his head, and then did the same to Warhawk. "We are going now," he said, and neither argued.

* * *

No good-byes. John watched silently as the other Lantern ringed a bubble around the three of them and lifted off into the rapidly-approaching twilight. He hadn't said good-bye to Rex the last time they'd met, and he wouldn't say it now. Too much, too weird, and while John was losing any doubts he'd ever had that he would see his son again, he didn't want to know if Rex could say the same thing now. In _his_ Now.

John shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to organize everything he'd learned and what he thought he shouldn't have learned.

"They'll be fine," said Bruce.

"How can you be sure?"

"I can't. But either way, we'll never know. Don't dwell on it."

"You're the brooder," John said. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be getting back to Gotham? Doesn't the city turn into a pumpkin if you're not there by midnight?"

Bruce's eyes narrowed, and John had no doubt his own intentions were clear. "Swear to me you won't do anything foolish." John considered mentioning that he'd seen Bruce take his protégé aside and hand him something, but it would be pointless. No doubt Bruce had justified whatever it was with the same mental calisthenics he used to warrant breaking the law while catching lawbreakers.

"I won't." But he did wait until the Batwing had lifted from the landing bay before he went to the living quarters and touched the door chime.

"Who is it?"

"Lantern. Are you alone?"

"Yeah. Come on in." The door slid open, though John stayed outside. Virgil was putting his mask back on.

"Remember what I said about not getting involved with time travel?"

"Yeah?"

John lit up his ring. "Forget it and come with me."

* * *

Kai-Ro took one more look at the coordinates, and then flew them as quickly as he could in Earth's atmosphere.

"It's going to make her happy," Warhawk said in answer to the remark neither of them had yet made.

"At least you did not tell him her name. Or yours," said Kai.

"You should've let one of us do it," said Batman.

"GL wouldn't've asked, and anyway, she still has a crush on you. You think I was gonna let you be the one to get her father's autograph?"

Batman's mouth quirked. "I guess not."

"Why did you stay?"

"Hm?" Batman was apparently still considering the notion that Aquawoman had a crush on him.

Kai-Ro affected temporary deafness, which was sometimes the easiest way to deal with his teammates. Unfortunately or not, it _was_ merely an affectation.

"You should've gone home with Robin. Why'd you stay?"

Batman shrugged.

As they approached the coordinates, he said quietly, "It could've been my kid screaming."

* * *

"_Transport from Atlantis_," came the sudden crackle over the communications system. "_Please advise._"

Cassandra touched the receiver. "Hello, transport. We've been waiting for you. Dock is ready." Then she pressed the full-Tower comm: "The doctor from Atlantis is docking now. Somebody show him or her where to go?"

She watched the outside monitor as the ship hooked up to their one underwater port without trouble, then hurried to the med lab where the others were already waiting. Not a minute later, Bart brought the doctor into the room.

"Where is she?" he asked, clutching a small bag of what she hoped were surgical implements. Static stared at him

"This way," said Bart, but even as he did, Cassandra saw what Static had noticed instantly. Barda was watching them, her hands reaching for the staff at her side.

"Wait," Superman said, in a tone bordering on unfriendly.

"I'm the physician. You sent for me," said the stranger.

Cassandra had known Merina for years. When little Arthur had come back with her from Atlantis to live above the sea, Cassandra and the rest had seen him and noted that he favored his mother quite strongly.

As things appeared now, this was not in fact the case. The man in the room looked exactly as she'd pictured Arthur as an adult, down to the growing scowl on his face as he read the suspicion surrounding him.

"Where is Merina?" he asked, his free hand forming into a fist. _Merina_, she noted. Not _Princess Merina_ as most Atlanteans called her.

"Safe," said Static. "She's in stasis. Who are you?"

The man sighed angrily. "My name is Cerdian. I'm her husband. Now are you going to let me see her, or are we going to have to fight?"

* * *

Stan fiddled with the new earpiece Grodd had given him. It didn't fit very well, and he kept wanting to dig it out of his ear. But they needed to keep in contact with Grodd and his people, the monkey had said, without telling the League that they were involved.

The stupid earpiece itched like crazy.

Stan thought privately that the real reason Grodd wanted them in contact was so that he and Glen couldn't run off with the cash. Not that they would. When they'd first joined up, it had been the same day Killer Croc had been dragged in after having double-crossed the Society. After Stan had gotten a look at what they did to him, he hadn't been able to eat for two days.

Glen held the kid and one of the laser pistols the Secret Society had loaned them. The boy had stopped squirming after they'd smacked him. Grodd didn't want him permanently damaged in case they needed him healthy later, but he didn't mind a few extra bruises. Instead of struggling, the kid kept looking over the edge of the cliff.

Grodd had picked the spot: nice and isolated, the top of a narrow cliff that jutted out over an angry sea below. Visibility went on for miles, or would during the day. It was dusk now. Shadows stretched, huddling over the barren rocks surrounding them, but providing no cover for ambush.

"Take a good, long look, kid," Glen breathed down the boy's neck. "You give us trouble, and that's the last thing you'll see." Waves pounded the rock face beneath them.

Over the horizon came a green glow that resolved quickly into a sphere. Inside were three forms. Stan didn't recognize any of them, though one of them was making the bubble come out of a ring exactly like Green Lantern did.

Glen placed his weapon against the kid's cheek and motioned for the Lantern to set down about twenty feet away.

The bubble faded, leaving three guys dressed in black.

"You know how this goes," said Glen. "Give my friend here the money, and we give you the kid."

"Are you okay?" called the biggest of the three.

"I'm okay," said the kid. "You shouldn't have come."

"Yeah," said the big guy. "'Cause that was gonna happen."

"They killed Robin," said the kid sadly. "I think they killed Mom, too."

"They didn't," said the other one of the three that wasn't the Lantern. "They're both ... fine." The guy was lying, Stan could tell, but the kid put on a ghost of a smile.

"You're gonna be fine, too," said the big guy.

"That's really up to you," said Glen. "Where's the money?"

The Lantern said, "We did not bring any money."

Glen said, "Oh, you did not want to say that."

* * *

Inside their invisible bubble, Virgil tensed.

"Wait," John said.

* * *

"We've come to barter," said the big guy. "We've got something worth more than your asking price."

Stan touched his ear, but Grodd was silent on the other end.

"We're listening."

"We've got an alien," said the big guy. "Thanagarian."

"Are you crazy?" hissed one of his friends.

"_We're interested_," came the voice in Stan's ear.

"Keep talking," said Stan.

"We need proof," Glen said. "No tricks."

The big guy paused, then very slowly unzipped his shirt. He turned around, revealing two long, straight scars on his back.

"Those could be from anything," said Glen, though his voice trembled.

"A few of us got left behind when the armada took off," said the big guy. "You'd be surprised what you're willing to do to not get killed."

* * *

John watched. Virgil's eyes had gone wide, but then, no one had told him where Rex had come from. Metal wings on his suit, John remembered, as if he hadn't constantly replayed every instant of their brief contact. But maybe he'd had real ones once.

* * *

"Interesting," Grodd said, watching the monitor. Thanagarian corpses were selling for five hundred dollars per gram on the black market, and this wasn't the first one who'd gone the self-mutilation route, at least according to rumor. Assuming this wasn't some sort of trick, the trade would be a good one.

Not that Grodd had any intention of trading.

He toggled the communicator. "Sinestro? Have you met this Green Lantern before?"

"_No. But the Guardians have had to replace some of the ones I _did_ know._"

"When the time comes, deal with him."

"_Of course._"

Grodd changed frequencies back. "Tell them you accept."

* * *

Rex slipped his shirt back on, his eyes locked on Arthur's kidnappers. If they bought it, great. If not, he'd have to trust GL's ability to snatch Arthur away from them before the sleaze holding him could fire.

Part of him, a cruel part that he wasn't proud of but who surfaced pretty regularly, hoped the pair went for the hard choice, because then Rex wouldn't have any moral issues with beating them both to a pulp. He'd been wanting to hit someone, anyone, for days, and if these two were stupid enough to stand between him and his kid, they'd do.

One of them touched his ear. "Deal."

Rex let out a breath. The peaceful option was probably better.

"You come over here first," said the kidnapper. "Then we'll give you the boy."

A hand on his arm. Terry's. "You sure about this?" Rex nodded.

Kai said, "As soon as we have him, we will return home and wait for you. Two clicks."

"Right."

Rex held up his arms and walked the short distance over to them. "No tricks," he said. "You can let him go now."

"Check him," said the one holding Arthur. As the other one patted him down, he caught Arthur's eye and winked.

Arthur stared at him. "You can't do this."

"Everything's going to be all right," Rex reassured him. He put his arms in front of him. The shorter guy untied Arthur's hands and used the cord to wrap around Rex's thick wrists.

"Now," said GL, "give us the child." He brandished his ring.

The short guy tilted his head again, and then said, "Change of plan. We keep both of them." The tall guy's weapon was in Arthur's face again.

Rex couldn't say he was surprised.

A yellow bubble materialized behind the two kidnappers with Sinestro and a handful of other guys Rex vaguely recognized from old League records. Just as GL cast out a giant hand to grab Arthur and Rex, Sinestro created a yellow wall. GL's hand closed into a fist but could not breach it.

One of the other baddies --- dark suit, oblong mask for a head --- shot what looked like a trident gun at Terry.

* * *

Terry ducked, feeling the thing cut the air over his head. Instinct took over as he leapt for cover. GL was already in the air fighting the guy with the yellow ring. More darts followed Terry as he grabbed for where his belt ought to be, then remembered it was in his jacket pocket.

He grabbed the batarangs Bruce had handed him --- _In case you run into trouble,_ was all he'd said --- and whipped them right into Trident Guy's gun.

* * *

Kai-Ro blocked Sinestro's blows easily, and allowed himself to wonder how such a brazen fool proved to be the undoing of so many of Kai's predecessors in the Corps. A green bolt shot beside him, blocking a yellow tendril that was creeping up to strangle him from behind.

Kai offered a curt nod to Stewart, who had appeared as suddenly as Sinestro. "My thanks." Together, they flew to opposite sides of him, attempting to flank him.

* * *

Rex didn't recognize any of the faces surrounding them, not really. Bad costumes, low-rent villains from a bygone age. They would seem like jokes if he had his suit and his hands weren't tied.

"You'll be coming with us," said one with a frippin' magnet on his chest. "In your case, we don't care much if it's in one piece."

"Thanks for the invitation," Rex said.

Static finished, "But they'll have to decline," as he hit the guy in the chest with a blast of pink-purple energy.

That opened up a hole and took the attention of the guys with the guns, which was all he'd wanted.

Rex brought his hands up in an arc, catching the taller kidnapper under the chin, and then bringing his arms down snugly around Arthur. Before any of the bad guys could react, he pushed off with both legs, aiming for freefall as Arthur clung to him and someone fired at them, singeing Rex's arm before they dropped.

It was always like this when he jumped off a ledge, the stomach-dropping fear and exhilaration, but this time he had no wings or jetpacks to catch him.

While they fell through the air, Rex twisted his body as best he could to take the brunt of the impact of their landing. The bonds around his wrists were tight and he had to move, had to rotate.

_There!_

* * *

"No!" John shouted, forgetting Sinestro and zipping for where Rex and the boy had just fallen. As he reached the edge, he saw a strange flicker of light maybe a hundred feet down, and then nothing. He could have imagined it, he could have, but there was no splash.

The shorter kidnapper was still firing over the cliff, his blasts bouncing off John's personal shield. Something hit the gun, making it spark. A batarang, from the look of it.

Sinestro was still fighting the other Lantern. The other Batman shouted, "GL! They're gone!" The other Lantern set down on the cliff beside his friend, erecting a shield over them both. They touched something on their watches and vanished.

Sinestro touched his ear. "We're done here," he said to his allies.

"I don't think so," John said, forging a green sword.

"Not today, Johnny," Sinestro said, and blasted at John, then blew away part of the cliff face where the rest were standing. He scooped Doctor Polaris, Devil Ray and the others he'd brought into a yellow bubble, while Virgil made a disc and grabbed the two former kidnappers, suspending them upside-down over the steep drop into the sea.

"Hey!" shouted the taller kidnapper to Sinestro. "Get us too!"

"Why?" Sinestro asked, and then made the rest invisible. There was a sonic boom a second later as they blasted out of the area and away from where John could easily track them. They weren't the ones he was interested in anyway.

John scanned the area, scanned the water and rubble at the foot of the cliff, but there was no trace. Wherever Rex and the boy had gone, he wasn't going to find them.

"What happened?" Virgil asked, towing the perps over. He looked shocky and scared. "Are they ... ?"

"They fell," John said. "Thirty meters, call it. They'll be going just under a mile a minute when they land, wherever they land."

"Did they go back, do you think?"

"I'm sure of it," John said, though he _wasn't_ sure, not completely, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to live long enough to ever find out.

* * *

The world changed around them and Rex hugged Arthur tightly against his chest just as they hit _something_ very hard and very fast and then kept going. The air was forced from his lungs as his mind identified they were in water.

His clutch on Arthur became much more difficult. Arthur was trying to wiggle free. Rex let go, and Arthur slid out of his arms. He'd be okay. No matter what now, Arthur would be okay.

Rex felt himself falling deeper into the water. He couldn't see, couldn't breathe, his shoulders and back ached, his hands were still bound. All the trouble the sea had brought him, and here he was, about to drown. He wondered if his father would take him back to Thanagar, if he'd place the last of Rex's remains in the same crypt beside Mom's ashes. He wondered if any part of him would go on, would see her in some unknowable next life, if she would yell at him for getting killed.

Then Arthur said in a voice muffled by the water, "Hold on, Dad. I've got you." His small hands grabbed the collar of Rex's shirt, and he dragged him up towards the light.

As they surfaced, Rex gulped in huge, painful lungfuls of air, kicking his legs weakly to stay afloat. Arthur waded beside him easily, but then, Arthur had been born to this.

Well, maybe not _this_, Rex mused as he got his bearings. They were in the tank that Merina used for training. So, Watchtower, and future. Some future, anyway, and one in which Rex and Arthur both still existed. _Definitely a good start._

"Are you all right?" they asked each other at the same time, and then they laughed as Rex sputtered a little more, and pressed his forehead against his son's.

Not two seconds later, Superman hovered over the tank. "Need a hand?" Without waiting for an answer, he hauled Rex up and out. Rex bit back a groan. Everything hurt.

Arthur climbed out nimbly behind them. Barda and Static stood waiting with towels.

"Where's Mom?" Arthur asked, just as Rex was opening his mouth to ask the same thing.

No one answered.

* * *

Arthur had gone back to his room and changed his clothes. He didn't mind wet clothing, but Dad insisted. Now he waited in the medlab with everyone else while Barda taped Dad's ribs and Flash finished up with the dermregen on Arthur's bruises. His skin felt warm and tingly and tight where the derm light had gone over and he kept poking at the spots on his face where he'd had dark marks just a few minutes ago.

It was something to do.

His fa ... The doctor was still in surgery with Mom. Dad had very nearly stormed in when Superman had told him. He had his "wanting to shout" face on, but he'd taken a long look at Arthur and had let himself be talked down by Batman before Batman had gone home.

Mom and Dad thought Arthur didn't know. Oh, they knew he knew that his biological father still lived beneath the ocean, though not in Atlantis proper. Arthur went to see his cousins once or twice a year for formal occasions but had never met his father. Mom thought he didn't know she was still married to Cerdian, that she couldn't divorce him under Atlantean law, that she hadn't, wouldn't and couldn't marry Dad in a proper Atlantean fashion or even a silly human one.

But Arthur was quiet, and Arthur listened even when no one thought he was there, and Arthur knew that his father couldn't divorce his mother either, couldn't marry the woman he'd been living with since even before his marriage to Arthur's mother. Knowing that it had been an arranged marriage for political reasons made things no less weird when Arthur knew full well his mother had done the arranging based on her own politics. Sometimes, Arthur suspected being an adult meant a lot of self-inflicted complications, and his parents --- all of them --- were champion inflicters.

The thing was, if Mom died, his father didn't have to worry about a divorce. He didn't have to worry about the guy Mom was living with, or if she'd ever turn up with another child wanting his name attached. He'd be free.

More, while Arthur knew Mom and Dad had signed papers years ago that said Dad would get full custody should anything happen to her, he wasn't sure those would mean anything in Atlantis. His cousin Erissa might decree he could stay on the land, but she might not if she wanted him around more often. The League wouldn't want to start an incident with Atlantis, and although Dad would have something to say about the matter, well, he wasn't Arthur's stepfather, not really. His father had a claim on Arthur that even most human courts would acknowledge as better than what Dad had.

Maybe that's why he'd come. He'd thought Mom was going to die anyway, was in fact the only person right now who could possibly prevent that, and he would walk out of that room in a few minutes or hours, and he would look at Arthur and say, "I'm sorry."

And it would all have happened because Arthur had seen an image of someone he loved and couldn't look away.

He went to where his dad sat on the edge of one of the beds. Cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, wound on his arm where one of the laser pistols had nailed him. He was in better shape than Mom, but not much.

"Hey," Dad said, putting a smile on his face.

"Does it hurt?" Arthur asked, looking at the bandage on his arm.

"This? No. Hardly feel it. You're lookin' better."

"Yeah." He crawled up and sat beside Dad. "When we were in the past, did you get a chance to see Nana?"

Dad stiffened. "No. There wasn't time."

"I did. I didn't tell her anything," he added, seeing Dad's worried face. "She stayed with Robin and me before Batman got there. My grandfather was there too for a while, but he had to go. He said he was coming back later but he didn't."

Dad turned and picked up the shirt he'd discarded. "That reminds me." He dug into a pocket. "I got something for you and your mom." He pulled out a soggy white paper. "Oh. Guess it didn't ... "

Arthur took it from him anyway. Most of the ink had run, but he thought he could make out an "A" at the beginning still. "I think she'll love it," he said.

The door to the surgical bay opened. Arthur felt his heart skip, and he took Dad's hand.

His father looked around the room, his eyes settling on Arthur, and he walked over to where he sat. So weird, to see the man's face and finally know for sure where his own nose came from, the curve of his own ears and chin.

"Hello, Arthur," his father said. "It's good to meet you."

"Hi."

"You look a lot like your little brother. Same eyes."

Arthur didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. His dad was beside him, not getting angry yet, though that was never far.

"Your mother was injured very badly," said Cerdian. Arthur heard Dad inhale sharply. "I think there's going to be permanent nerve damage. With enough work, she should regain the use of her legs."

"She's alive?" Arthur asked. His father nodded. Around him he felt the relief wash over the others. Dad squeezed his hand so tightly it almost hurt. "Thank you," Arthur managed to whisper.

"You're welcome, son." He felt Dad twitch, but that was expected and okay. Mom was going to be fine, and that meant everything else would be, too.

* * *


	5. Epilogue

* * *

Time and Tide (5/5)  
a Justice League Unlimited / Batman Beyond story  
by Merlin Missy  
Copyright 2006  
PG-13

* * *

Shayera was in Ops when John showed up for his shift. Normally, he tried to ignore or avoid her. Okay, sometimes he tried to ignore or avoid her, and other times he couldn't make himself not write his own name under hers for a shift. So much for willpower.

This time, he merely studied her.

He'd been to the future a year ago on that mad dash with Batman and Diana. He hadn't known how to react when Rex had called him "Dad," how to deal with the then obvious revelation of who his mother must have been. When they'd returned to this time, everything reset and no one remembered but Batman. John had spent too much time wondering what it all meant.

Bruce had told him not to think about the future, that too much foreknowledge would drive him insane. Virgil had seen his own future and was trying to live his life anyway. Funny that some teenaged kid was managing what John himself was finding nearly impossible.

Part of him wanted to live his life as if he'd never known, thinking that was the only way to stay sane.

Part of him thought that if he'd met Mari first, his life would be a lot simpler and a lot happier and that simple and happy were still in the realm of possibility if he kept her close.

Part of him wanted to run up to Shayera and grab her by the arms and kiss her until the past and future were brushed away like bad dreams.

Part of him wanted to forget his trip to the future, and a big part of him wanted to forget everything starting from the day he met Shayera.

Part of him wondered what it would have been like, to teach Rex how to walk, how to swim, how to ride a bicycle and play football and read.  
Part of him wondered who the little boy had been, that Rex would have offered his life in exchange without thinking about it, that he would have jumped off a cliff for the kid even without his wings. The boy favored the Atlantean woman who'd been shot, and she had called Rex something that John was almost certain was Thanagarian.

Part of him had no doubts about where Rex had learned how to be a father.

Which was why it hurt so much to realize John himself was not prepared to jump off a cliff for a maybe-child, not yet.

"Hey," said Shayera, finally noticing his presence. She straightened up from what she was doing.

"Hey," he said.

"Did you interrogate those guys?"

He shook his head. "Whatever's short-circuiting the brains of the bad guys got them before we could ask anything. Batman's got some cop friends who can make charges stick on them enough to keep them incarcerated for now."

She frowned. "They grabbed two kids. They need to be locked up for the rest of their lives."

"You liked those kids, didn't you?"

A shrug. "They were okay. Duckboy was pretty good at chess."

"Duckboy?"

"Not his real name. I'm pretty sure, anyway. You didn't say what happened to him." She caught his glance and added, "I'm sure Aquaman would like to know."

"He went home. He and his family, they went home."

* * *

" ... they went home." came the tinny sound from the image.

"Dad?"

Rex didn't turn from where he stood, watching. He waved Arthur over. The two figures stopped talking and turned to their tasks for the evening. That was back when they weren't talking much anyway, when Dad was still with Aunt Mari, and the world was a different place. Even so, he was pretty sure it wasn't his imagination how his parents worked together without speaking, the movements of one flowing easily into and against the other.  
"Like I said, we didn't have time to see her. While we were there."

"Time machines are bad," Arthur said, standing a careful distance away.

"No. They're just machines. We're the ones with the bad. Too many temptations."

So tempting, and it had been so easy to change the setting on the belt, just enough to find the room where they were. He could go back. Hell, with this thing, he could go anywhere, anywhen. He could go to Galtos a week ago, he knew it, if he could adjust the belt properly.

She was right there, pushing her hair behind her ear just so, looking younger than Rex could ever remember. That line on her face was familiar, the one that bespoke of her responsibility for too many deaths. She'd never lose that; he'd seen it etched deep even as he'd kissed her cool, still forehead not a week ago. But Rex knew what the woman in the image couldn't, that she would be forever marked too by lines from smiles, from laughter. Rex would be the cause of many of those, and Arthur even more, and the sum of her life would not be measured solely by the destruction she'd wrought, but also by the lives she'd saved, and touched, and caused to be.

He reached out, wanting to touch her face one more time, to reassure her that the world was going to move on, to have just one last moment with her. And then he turned the switch off, and with a few quick movements, yanked out the power supply, crushing it in his fist.

"Come on," he told Arthur. "Your mom will be waking up soon. We should be there."

She was in fact already awake, and Cerdian was in the room with her.

"Arthur," she breathed, and then grunted a little as he flung himself at her. "Watch it," she said gently, brushing his face with her fingertips. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," he said, fighting back tears. "Mom, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I'll be fine." Her eyes drifted to Cerdian. "Arthur, I want you to meet your father."

"We met," Arthur said.

"Kind of a surprise," Rex said in what he pretended was a friendly voice.

Merina's gaze settled on him, and a smile lit her features. "Thank you for bringing him home." That was odd. He hadn't expected an immediate declaration of affection or anything, but "thank you" was a little cold.

"Anytime," he mumbled.

"We should probably get this over with," she said to Cerdian.  
Get what over with?

Merina turned back to Rex. "Do you trust me?" Rex nodded. "Good. Don't duck."

"Why would I ... "

The punch came out of nowhere, landing squarely on his jaw. Pain shot through his teeth as they crunched together. Instinct made him raise his own fist, but Merina stopped him.

"Don't."

Cerdian held one hand with the other, flexing it and grimacing. "You have a chin like an iron block."

"I could have told you that," said Merina. "You should have hit him in the eye."

"Why did he hit me at all?" Rex moved his jaw around, refusing to give Cerdian the satisfaction of rubbing it. He paused, seeing their matching expressions. "Okay, other than the obvious."

"It's an Atlantean honor thing," Merina explained. "It's a ritualized way of declaring that we're seeing other people. On paper, we're still married, but in the eyes of our people, we just broke up."

"Not yet," said Cerdian. He moved his own jaw around, made a sound in his throat, and spat on the floor beside Merina's bed. "Now we're broken up."

Arthur looked down at the spittle on the floor and then up at his mother. "You told me that if I ever spit on the floor, I'd be grounded for a month."

"And now you know why," she said, before Rex could comment on grounding. "Get your things. You're going back to Atlantis with your father."

"What?" asked Rex and Arthur at the same time.

"It's for a week," said Cerdian. "Your mother and I discussed this. You need to meet your brother and sister, and your stepmother would like to see you, as well."

Arthur took his mother's hand. "I want to stay here."

"You'll be back," she said. "I need to rest, and so does your dad." Rex was pretty sure he didn't imagine her emphasis on the last word, and was positive when he saw the quickly-covered glare from Cerdian.

Arthur composed his features into a scowl. Rex couldn't blame him.

"Are you sure?" Rex asked her, his eyes on Cerdian. Do you trust him?  
"I'm sure."

Rex said to Arthur, "Just a week. And if he doesn't have you home on time, I'll come get you myself."

"Think of it as going on vacation," said Merina. "Especially since as soon as you get back home, you're grounded for the rest of the summer."

Arthur's eyes widened, and he turned to his father. "So, what are their names?"

Cerdian smiled. "I'll introduce you. Come and show me your room, and we will pack together. You can say your good-byes later."

Arthur gave his mother's hand a squeeze. "All right." He led Cerdian out of the surgical bay with a last look back.

The hum of the instruments in this room was familiar, and Rex let their noises fill the silence between them as Merina settled back against her pillows, paler and more tired than she'd seemed just a minute before. He felt the throb in his shoulder and chest, the minor angry pain in his jaw. But they were alive, and they were together, and there were worse things.

"I'm tired," she said after a long time. "And everything hurts."

"I know."

"I want to start over. I want to start us over."

"We keep doin' that."

"And it keeps not working." She'd said whatever had happened with Cerdian meant they were finally broken up. He wondered suddenly if that meant she was breaking up with Rex, too, if sending Arthur away was just an easier way of softening that blow.

The compression bandages on his ribs were too tight. His lungs were crushing closed. She was going to leave him again, and this time it would be forever.

"I want us to live in the house together," she said.

"What?" He was sure he'd misheard her.

"I'm tired of going between the house and the Tower. I'm tired of Arthur not having one place to grow up. I want us to be a family."

"We are."

She closed her eyes. "Yes. I know. But we're also not. And you know that, too. You don't trust me."  
"What? Of course I trust you."

"You don't. You worry when I'm here with Batman, just a little. You were worried when you found out Cerdian was here, weren't you?" He said nothing. "You don't trust me, Rex. A part of me doesn't trust you, either."

That hurt. "I'm not going to leave you or fool around on you."

"But you could. You could find someone else and get married. That was our deal, way back when."

"I could also go join the Iniquity Collective. Ain't gonna happen there, either."

She laughed, and he could hear how short her breath was. He stroked the hair from her face.

Merina said, "I want your father to come live with us. He's our family, too, and if he was at the house, Arthur wouldn't have to stay at the Tower so often."

"I already asked him. He kicked me out."

She made a noise in her throat. "Give him a little time. You're the biggest reminder he has of your mother."

"When I thought I lost you," he said, touching her again just to make sure he hadn't, "I couldn't think of anything but getting Arthur back. Dad doesn't even want to see me."

"You and John aren't the same person."

"No kidding."

"I think I know how to get him over his objection to living with us."

"Magic spell?"

"Not quite. When I'm back on my feet, and Arthur's back ashore, I want to go by that store across the street from the Aquarium."

Rex tried to think about the stores in that district: a bunch of touristy places, restaurants, collectibles, and tucked away between a German café and a t-shirt shop, one lonely little jewelry store.

A vision of his future stretched out. Their home, their family, cobbled together from spare parts but just as strong as anyone else in the League had. They both were aging more slowly than humans, plenty of time to build a real life together, to watch Arthur grow into the extraordinary man he was surely going to be, to live.  
He saw himself older, maybe a little wiser, saw Merina there with him, saw grandkids who looked a lot like Arthur and a bit like a girl none of them had even met yet, who spoke Thanagarian with heavy Atlantean accents and who thought everyone knew basic drill formation as a matter of course. He saw a ring on his own finger, wide gold with an emerald for preference, and a pair of pearl earrings at her ears, and the people who understood would know, and no one else needed to understand.

"I think that's the best idea I've heard in a long time," he said, and then to emphasize the point, he bent over and kissed her. Her mouth was dry, but she moved her jaw gently beneath his and her eyes sparkled like sunlight glinting on the sea.

* * *

The End

* * *

Again, I'd like to thank my betas, and also everyone who's been commenting. I've been working on this story in one form or another since February of 2004, and I'd reached the point where I was sure nobody was going to read it.

Now here's the thing. I track the statistics on my stories, and I can see that hundreds of people click through to the last chapter on multichaptered fics, indicating people are reading the whole stories. In other words, I can see you. I can also see that I'm averaging about five comments per story unless I do the passive-aggressive thing by only posting one bit at a time and waiting for comments.

I had originally planned for this to be my last post in this fandom on and to post everything else to Livejournal and JLA Unlimited. However, I've decided instead to open this to the floor. Call it curiosity if you will. If you read this and don't normally comment, please consider this a free pass to not comment on the story at all, but instead to tell me why you read but don't review. I'm not saying anyone should feel obligated to comment ever, but I'm honestly baffled as to what makes people decide not to review something they've just spent an hour reading (and thus found interesting enough to finish --- if it was simply the pairing or the topic, no one would click through past the first chapter).

So enlighten me. Review the story if you'd like, but if you don't intend to review, please at least let me know why you won't. Thank you.


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